On Model-Based Clustering, Classification, and Discriminant Analysis

The use of mixture models for clustering and classification has burgeoned into an important subfield of multivariate analysis. These approaches have been around for a half-century or so, with significant activity in the area over the past decade. The primary focus of this paper is to review work in model-based clustering, classification, and discriminant analysis, with particular attention being paid to two techniques that can be implemented using respective R packages. Parameter estimation and model selection are also discussed. The paper concludes with a summary, discussion, and some thoughts on future work.