Kernel Density Estimation through Density Constrained Near Neighbor Search

In this paper we revisit the kernel density estimation problem: given a kernel K(x, y) and a dataset of n points in high dimensional Euclidean space, prepare a data structure that can quickly output, given a query q, a (1 + epsilon)-approximation to mu := 1/vertical bar P vertical bar Sigma p is an element of P K(p, q). First, we give a single data structure based on classical near neighbor search techniques that improves upon or essentially matches the query time and space complexity for all radial kernels considered in the literature so far. We then show how to improve both the query complexity and runtime by using recent advances in data-dependent near neighbor search.