MEASURING TOTAL UNCERTAINTY IN DEMPSTER-SHAFER THEORY - A NOVEL-APPROACH

A novel approach to measuring uncertainty and uncertainty-based inform ation in Dempster-Shafer theory is proposed (independently also propos ed by Maeda et al. [1993]). It is shown that the proposed measure of t otal uncertainty in Dempster-Shafer theory is both additive and subadd itive, has a desired range, and collapses correctly to either the Shan non entropy or the Hartley measure of uncertainty for special probabil ity assignment functions. The paper is restricted, for the sake of sim plicity, to finite sets.