SVM Kernels
Kerneling is a technique used in Machine Learning to separate data into feature vectors. This of course is a simplified definition but it captures the main essence in usage of kernel methods very well. Kerneling, also known as kernel methods or kernel tricks reach feature vectorization goals more accurately and more efficiently using hyperplanes to separate data.
There are 4 main built-in kernels in Scikit-learn’s Support Vector Machine implementation. These are:
- Linear: Kernel to go with when data is linear
- Polynomial: Kernel to go with data is polynomial
- RBF: Kernel to go with when data is more complex
- Sigmoid: Kernel to go with when more complicated tasks need to be tackled similar to neural network applications.
Generally speaking, these kernels will perform faster going from simpler to more complex. In that sense it’s fair to say Linear kernel will perform the fastest among four. But there are many other important factors of course that can affect the performance of a Support Vector algorithm implementation.
A Kernel for Linear Data
Linear Kernel Usage
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A Kernel for Polynomial Data
Polynomial Kernel Usage
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A Kernel for Non-Linear Data
RBF Kernel Usage
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A Kernel for Neural Network
Sigmoid Kernel Usage
Sigmoid kernel originates from Neural Network applications and it is possible to utilize it with Support Vector Machines although it’s not a very popular or practical application.
It is mostly preferred for neural networks and logistic regression. This kernel function is similar to a two-layer perceptron model of the neural network, which works as an activation function for neurons.
It can be shown as,
Sigmoid Kernel Function Formulation:
F(x, xj) = tanh(αxay + c)
Summary
Different kernels can be used to approach different data problems and there are variety of applications ranging from most simplistic linear kernel methods to more complicated kernel methods that create complex multi-dimensional hyperplanes to serve as decision borders and separate complex data relations.
Kernels are known as a pro and con of Support Vector Machines. Their usage advantage is the flexibility and customization they offer to tackle many different problems in different ways. Their disadvantage is they can complicate practical solutions as well as usage of computational resources.
Kernel selection can be a very important aspect of Support Vector Machine implementations. In general kernel selection is very dependent on the problem at hand and you will want to use kernels that are suitable to the linearity of the dataset.
custom kernel example
https://scikit-learn.org/stable/auto_examples/svm/plot_custom_kernel.html
Sigmoid Kernel Usage
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Sigmoid Kernel Usage
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