  Curve registration and clustering are fundamental tools in the analysis of
functional data. While several methods have been developed and explored for
either task individually, limited work has been done to infer functional
clusters and register curves simultaneously. We propose a hierarchical model
for joint curve clustering and registration. Our proposal combines a Dirichlet
process mixture model for clustering of common shapes, with a reproducing
kernel representation of phase variability for registration. We show how
inference can be carried out applying standard posterior simulation algorithms
and compare our method to several alternatives in both engineered data and a
benchmark analysis of the Berkeley growth data. We conclude our investigation
with an application to time course gene expression.
