On the validity of Dempster-Shafer Theory

Abstract

We challenge the validity of Dempster-Shafer Theory by using an emblematic example to show that DS rule produces counter-intuitive result. Further analysis reveals that the result comes from a understanding of evidence pooling which goes against the common expectation of this process. Although DS theory has attracted some interest of the scientific community working in information fusion and artificial intelligence, its validity to solve practical problems is problematic, because it is not applicable to evidences combination in general, but only to a certain type situations which still need to be clearly identified.