We consider the problem of density estimation when the data is in the form of a continuous stream with no fixed length. In
this setting, implementations of the usual methods of density estimation such as kernel density estimation are problematic.
We propose a method of density estimation for massive datasets that is based upon taking the derivative of a smooth curve
that has been fit through a set of quantile estimates. To achieve this, a low-storage, single-pass, sequential method is proposed
for simultaneous estimation of multiple quantiles for massive datasets that form the basis of this method of density estimation.
For comparison, we also consider a sequential kernel density estimator. The proposed methods are shown through simulation
study to perform well and to have several distinct advantages over existing methods.
Keywords Sequential quantile estimation - Sequential density estimation - Online algorithms - Sequential algorithms - Cubic spline