001/**
002 * Copyright (c) 2011, The University of Southampton and the individual contributors.
003 * All rights reserved.
004 *
005 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
006 * are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
007 *
008 *   *  Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
009 *      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
010 *
011 *   *  Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
012 *      this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
013 *      and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
014 *
015 *   *  Neither the name of the University of Southampton nor the names of its
016 *      contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this
017 *      software without specific prior written permission.
018 *
019 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND
020 * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
021 * WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
022 * DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR
023 * ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
024 * (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
025 * LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON
026 * ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
027 * (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
028 * SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
029 */
030package org.openimaj.math.model;
031
032import java.util.List;
033
034import org.openimaj.util.pair.IndependentPair;
035
036/**
037 * An extension to a {@link Model} that allows the model to be estimated from a
038 * series of observations of both the independent and dependent variables.
039 * 
040 * @author Jonathon Hare (jsh2@ecs.soton.ac.uk)
041 * 
042 * @param <I>
043 *            type of independent data
044 * @param <D>
045 *            type of dependent data
046 */
047public interface EstimatableModel<I, D> extends Model<I, D>, Cloneable {
048        /**
049         * Estimates the model from the observations in the list of data. The data
050         * must contain at least {@link #numItemsToEstimate()} pairs of dependent
051         * and independent data. It may contain more, in which case the estimate
052         * method may choose to make use of this data for validation, or obtaining a
053         * better model by a least squares method for example.
054         * 
055         * @param data
056         *            Data with which to estimate the model
057         * @return true if a successful estimate was made, false otherwise
058         * @see #numItemsToEstimate()
059         */
060        public boolean estimate(List<? extends IndependentPair<I, D>> data);
061
062        /**
063         * @return The minimum number of observations required to estimate the
064         *         model.
065         */
066        public int numItemsToEstimate();
067
068        /**
069         * Clone the model
070         * 
071         * @return a cloned copy
072         */
073        public EstimatableModel<I, D> clone();
074}