Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation for Bayesian Hidden Markov Models

A hidden Markov model (HMM) is a mixture model which has a Markov chain with finite states as its mixing distribution. HMMs have been applied to a variety of fields, such as speech and face recognitions. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the Bayesian approach to HMMs. Using this approach, we can simulate from the parameters’ posterior distribution using some Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling methods. HMMs seem to be useful, but there are some limitations. Therefore, by using the Mixture of Dirichlet processes Hidden Markov Model (MDPHMM) based on Yau et. al (2011), we hope to overcome these limitations. We shall conduct a simulation study using MCMC methods to investigate the performance of this model.