Interest zone matrix approximation

We present an algorithm for low rank approximation of matrices where only some of the entries in the matrix are taken into consideration. This algorithm appears in recent literature under different names, where it is described as an EM based algorithm that maximizes the likelihood for the missing entries without any relation for the mean square error minimization. When the algorithm is minimized from a mean-square-error point of view, we prove that the error produced by the algorithm is monotonically decreasing. It guarantees to converge to a local MSE minimum. We also show that an extension of the EM based algorithm for weighted low rank approximation, which appeared in recent literature, claiming that it converges to a local minimum of the MSE is wrong. Finally, we show the use of the algorithm in different applications for physics, electrical engineering and data interpolation.