QUANTIFICATION OF CONFLICT IN DEMPSTER-SHAFER FRAMEWORK - A NEW APPROACH

Uncertainty in Dempster-Shafer framework can be considered to consist of two components; one arising due to randomness, and the other arisin g due to the lack of specificity in evidence. One facet of uncertainty due to random: ness is conflict in the evidence. Here we establish th e need for a new measure of conflict and follow a fresh approach to ac hieve the same. We view the conflict between propositions as being pro portional to the 'distance'' between them. We expect this ''distance'' to obey the laws of a metric. With this motivation we formulate a set of axioms that we expect a metric distance to satisfy, in order to qu antify the conflict between two propositions. Based on this we derive a unique expression for the conflict between propositions. The average of conflict between propositions gives a measure of fetal conflict in the body of evidence. We then prove various properties of this confli ct measure.