  The geometric median covariation matrix is a robust multivariate indicator of
dispersion which can be extended without any difficulty to functional data. We
define estimators, based on recursive algorithms, that can be simply updated at
each new observation and are able to deal rapidly with large samples of high
dimensional data without being obliged to store all the data in memory.
Asymptotic convergence properties of the recursive algorithms are studied under
weak conditions. The computation of the principal components can also be
performed online and this approach can be useful for online outlier detection.
A simulation study clearly shows that this robust indicator is a competitive
alternative to minimum covariance determinant when the dimension of the data is
small and robust principal components analysis based on projection pursuit and
spherical projections for high dimension data. An illustration on a large
sample and high dimensional dataset consisting of individual TV audiences
measured at a minute scale over a period of 24 hours confirms the interest of
considering the robust principal components analysis based on the median
covariation matrix. All studied algorithms are available in the R package
Gmedian on CRAN.
