Information fusion for large-scale multi-source data based on the Dempster-Shafer evidence theory

There exists many large-scale multi-source data, ranging from genetic information to medical records, and military intelligence. The inherent intricacies and uncertainties embedded within these data sources pose significant challenges to the process of information fusion. Owing to its exceptional capacity to represent data uncertainty, Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory has emerged as a widely utilized approach in information fusion. However, the evidence theory encounters three significant issues when applied to multi-source data information fusion: (1) the conversion of sample information into evidence and the construction of the basic probability assignment (BPA) function; (2) the resolution of conflicting evidence; and (3) the mitigation of exponential explosion in computation. Addressing the aforementioned challenges, this paper delves into the information fusion strategies for large-scale multi-source data based on Dempster-Shafer evidence theory. Initially, the concept of support matrix is introduced and the data matrix is transformed into a support matrix to address the construction challenges associated with BPA. Next, a method for addressing evidence conflicts is introduced by incorporating an additional data source composed of average values. Furthermore, a solution for mitigating high computational complexity is presented through the utilization of a hierarchical fusion approach. Finally, experimental results show that compared with other five advanced information fusion methods, our information method has improved the classification accuracy by 4.66% on average and reduced the time by 66.35% on average. Hence, our method is both efficient and effective, demonstrating exceptional performance in information fusion.