Numerical approach to structure asymmetry

From: Krzysztof Nowak (pegazik_at_interia.pl)
Date: 03/25/05 

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 04:40:47 EST

Hello.

I am so happy that I have found this place, I was looking for answer for my question couple of hours and almost lost my hope. Maybe some expert could help me.

I'm going to study planar 2D structure built with 10-15 points. How could some find anisotrophy of this distribution? It would be nice to measure size of anisotrophy and consider weight of particular points.

My first approach is to calculate the most appropriate axis with linear regression, than somehow calculate 'length' and 'width' of structure. Assymetry could be (length - width) / (length + width).

It should work, but I was quite shure that it is a common problem and I could find some smart solution (now, after couple of hours of browsing I'm not so shure anymore). I need to calculate huge amount of data and I would really appreciate something more clever.

Any ideas?
Krzys