# Naive Bayes and the MNIST Database

The MNIST database consists of handwritten digits stored as $$28 \times 28$$ bit maps. In this post, we are going to use the database to train a naive Bayesian classifier.

### The Model

Our model has the following random variables:

• $$c \in \{ 0,1,2,\dots,9\}$$: the digit label. Each bitmap in the data set is labeled by the digit it is trying to represent.
• $$x \in \{0,1\}^{28 \times 28}$$: the bit map. Although the database consists of Gray scale bit maps, we have transformed them into black and white. This reduces the number of parameters in our model.
• $$\theta \in [0,1]^{28 \times 28 \times 10}$$: the activation probability. The random variable $$\theta_{ic}$$ represents the probability that bit $$i$$ is turned on in a bitmap which is labeled $$c$$.
• $$\pi \in [0,1]^{10}$$: the label probability. The random variable $$\pi_c$$ represents the probability that a given bitmap has label $$c$$.

We are using a naive Bayesian model. Therefore

• $$x_i \perp x_j | c,\theta,\pi$$: This is what we mean by naive Bayesian. If the label is fixed, then different pixels are independent.

The joint distribution is given by

$p(c,x,\theta,\pi) = p(c,x | \theta,\pi) p(\theta,\pi) = p(x | c,\theta,\pi) p(c | \theta,\pi) p(\theta,\pi) = p(\theta,\pi) \pi_c \prod_{i} p(x_i \lvert c,\theta)$

The MNIST database is $$\mathcal{D} = \left\{ c^{(n)},x^{(n)} \right\}_{n=1,\dots,N}$$ and we are interested in computing the distribution $$p(c | x, \mathcal{D})$$. The joint posterior distribution is $p(c,x,\theta,\pi | \mathcal{D}) = p(c,x|\theta,\pi,\mathcal{D}) p(\theta,\pi|\mathcal{D}) = p(c,x | \theta,\pi) p(\theta,\pi|\mathcal{D})$ We use the prior distribution $p(\theta,\pi) = {\rm Dirichlet}(\pi,1) \prod_{i,c} {\rm Beta}(\theta_{i,c},1,1).$ Then the posterior distribution is $p(\theta,\pi \lvert \mathcal{D}) = {\rm Dirichlet}(\pi,N_c+1) \prod_{i,c} {\rm Beta}(\theta_{i,c},N_{ic} + 1,N_c - N_{ic} + 1)$ where

• $$N_c$$: classifier frequency. The number of bitmaps labeled $$c$$ in $$\mathcal{D}$$
• $$N_{ic}$$: pixel frequency. The number of times the $$i$$th bit is turned on when the label is $$c$$.

Since $$\mathcal{D}$$ is a large data set $$(N=60,000)$$, we can approximate the posterior $$p(\theta,\pi \lvert \mathcal{D})$$ as a dirac measure supported at its mean: $p(\theta,\pi \lvert \mathcal{D}) = \delta_{(\widehat{\theta},\widehat{\pi})} \quad \widehat{\theta}_{ic} = \frac{N_{ic} + 1}{N_c + 1} \quad \widehat{\pi}_{c} = \frac{N_c + 1}{N + 1}$ Therefore $p(c,x | \mathcal{D}) = \int p(c,x | \theta,\pi) p(\theta,\pi \lvert \mathcal{D}) = p(c,x| \widehat{\theta},\widehat{\pi})$ which implies that $p(c \lvert x, \mathcal{D}) \varpropto p(x | c,\widehat{\theta},\widehat{\pi}) \widehat{\pi}_c$

### The implementation

The MNIST bit maps are in gray scale. Firstly, we flatten them to black and white and translate the raw byte files into CSV files using Haskell. We then implement the above model in Python. The trained NBC correctly identifies $$85\%$$ of the test set.