  The purpose of this work is to describe a unified, and indeed simple,
mechanism for non-parametric Bayesian analysis, construction and generative
sampling of a large class of latent feature models which one can describe as
generalized notions of Indian Buffet Processes(IBP). This is done via the
Poisson Process Calculus as it now relates to latent feature models. The IBP
was ingeniously devised by Griffiths and Ghahramani in (2005) and its
generative scheme is cast in terms of customers entering sequentially an Indian
Buffet restaurant and selecting previously sampled dishes as well as new
dishes. In this metaphor dishes corresponds to latent features, attributes,
preferences shared by individuals. The IBP, and its generalizations, represent
an exciting class of models well suited to handle high dimensional statistical
problems now common in this information age. The IBP is based on the usage of
conditionally independent Bernoulli random variables, coupled with completely
random measures acting as Bayesian priors, that are used to create sparse
binary matrices. This Bayesian non-parametric view was a key insight due to
Thibaux and Jordan (2007). One way to think of generalizations is to to use
more general random variables. Of note in the current literature are models
employing Poisson and Negative-Binomial random variables. However, unlike their
closely related counterparts, generalized Chinese restaurant processes, the
ability to analyze IBP models in a systematic and general manner is not yet
available. The limitations are both in terms of knowledge about the effects of
different priors and in terms of models based on a wider choice of random
variables. This work will not only provide a thorough description of the
properties of existing models but also provide a simple template to devise and
analyze new models.
