Two information-theoretic tools to assess the performance of multi-class classifiers

We develop two tools to analyze the behavior of multiple-class, or multi-class, classifiers by means of entropic measures on their confusion matrix or contingency table. First we obtain a balance equation on the entropies that captures interesting properties of the classifier. Second, by normalizing this balance equation we first obtain a 2-simplex in a three-dimensional entropy space and then the de Finetti entropy diagram or entropy triangle. We also give examples of the assessment of classifiers with these tools. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.