Interactive element. Drag the handles to adjust the distribution's mean, standard deviations, and correlation. Observe how it affects the distribution's shape and the covariance matrix.

Gaussian inference

In a nutshell, Bayes' Theorem realizes two steps:

This operation can rarely be solved in closed form. However, when both the prior and the likelihood are Gaussian, the joint pdf p(x,y) is always (multivariate) Gaussian. This permits a closed-form solution. Interact with the element to the left, and observe how the posterior solution changes (and what remains unchanged) as you adjust the following three variables: