Nonparametric Bayesian Regression and Classification on Manifolds, With Applications to 3D Cochlear Shapes.

Advanced shape analysis studies such as regression and classification need to be performed on curved manifolds, where often, there is a lack of standard statistical formulations. To overcome these limitations, we introduce a novel machine-learning method on the shape space of curves that avoids direct inference on infinite-dimensional spaces and instead performs Bayesian inference with spherical Gaussian processes decomposition. As an application, we study the shape of the cochlear spiral-shaped cavity within the petrous part of the temporal bone. This problem is particularly challenging due to the relationship between shape and gender, especially in children. Experimental results for both synthetic and real data show improved performance compared to state-of-the-art methods.