What is the 'bandwidth' parameter in mvksdensity function?

• What is the 'bandwidth' parameter in mvksdensity function?
• Bandwidth implies kernel width in terms of what quantity? Is it in the form of radius or data points or how do you quantify it?
• Is optimal bandwidth provided for more than one-dimensional data?
• Can this function be used in the form of spatial kernel density estimation for images? If yes, how?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

• What is the bandwidth parameter in mvksdensity function?

It is the bandwidth of the kernel smoothing window. You can find more information in the link below:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/stats/mvksdensity.html#mw_fa4a9f09-c01e-4651-96a1-0bb5ee54637b

• Bandwidth implies kernel width in terms of what quantity? Is it in the form of radius or data points or how do you quantify it?

This is the distance in each coordinate direction. There is a separate width for each coordinate, though you can specify it as a scalar if you want the same value for each. See the description on the page linked above.

• Is optimal bandwidth provided for more than one-dimensional data?

Bandwidth is a mandatory argument and can be chosen based on Silverman’s rule of thumb as described in the link below.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/stats/mvksdensity.html#bu62r12-bw

• Can this function be used in the form of spatial kernel density estimation for images? If yes, how?

This function is aimed at scattered points and estimating their distribution. An image is a set of pixel values at regular points. This function does not do anything like kernel smoothing of the pixel values of an image.