On procrustean mean shapes and the shape of the means

Extract

Two sets of k labelled points, or configurations, in ℝ^m are defined to have the same shape if they differ only in translation, rotation and scaling. An important matter in practice is the estimation of the shape of the means; the shape determined by the means of data on the vertices of configurations. However, statistical models for vertices-based shapes always involve some unknown samplewise nuisance parameters associated with ambiguity of location, rotation and scaling. The use of procrustean mean shapes for a finite set of configurations, which are usually formulated directly in terms of their vertices, will enable one to eliminate these nuisance parameters.