Graphical representation of multivariate data using Chernoff faces

Chernoff (1971, Technical Report 71, Department of Statistics, Stan- ford University; 1973, Journal of the American Statistical Association 68: 361– 368) proposed the use of cartoon-like faces to represent points in k dimensions. This article describes a Stata implementation of a face-generating algorithm using the method proposed by Flury (1980, Technical Report 3, Institute of Mathemati- cal Statistics and Actuarial Science, Bern University), Schu ̈pbach (1987, Technical Report 25, Institute of Mathematical Statistics and Acturial Science, Bern Univer- sity), and Friendly (1991, http://www.math.yorku.ca/SCS/sasmac/faces.html). I present examples of applying Chernoff faces to data clustering and outlier detection. Copyright 2009 by StataCorp LP.