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Reading list

Machine Learning Basics for a Newbie
6 Steps of Machine learning Lifecycle Introduction to Predictive Modeling
Introduction to Exploratory Data Analysis & Data Insights Descriptive Statistics Inferential Statistics How to Understand Population Distributions?
Reading Data Files into Python Different Variable Datatypes
Probability for Data Science Basic Concepts of Probability Axioms of Probability Conditional Probability
Central Tendencies for Continuous Variables Spread of Data KDE plots for Continuous Variable Overview of Distribution for Continuous variables Normal Distribution Skewed Distribution Skeweness and Kurtosis Distribution for Continuous Variable
Central Tendencies for Categorical Variables Understanding Discrete Distributions Performing EDA on Categorical Variables
Dealing with Missing Values Understanding Outliers Identifying Outliers in Data Outlier Detection in Python Outliers Detection Using IQR, Z-score, LOF and DBSCAN
Sample and Population Central Limit Theorem Confidence Interval and Margin of Error
Bivariate Analysis Introduction
Covariance Pearson Correlation Spearman's Correlation & Kendall's Tau Correlation versus Causation Tabular and Graphical methods for Bivariate Analysis Performing Bivariate Analysis on Continuous-Continuous Variables
Tabular and Graphical methods for Continuous-Categorical Variables Introduction to Hypothesis Testing P-value Two sample Z-test T-test T-test vs Z-test Performing Bivariate Analysis on Continuous-Catagorical variables
Chi-Squares Test Bivariate Analysis on Categorical Categorical Variables
Multivariate Analysis A Comprehensive Guide to Data Exploration The Data Science behind IPL
Supervised Learning vs Unsupervised Learning Reinforcement Learning Generative and Descriminative Models Parametric and Non Parametric model
Machine Learning Pipeline Preparing Dataset Build a Benchmark Model: Regression Build a Benchmark Model: Classification
Evaluation Metrics for Machine Learning Everyone should know Confusion Matrix Accuracy Precision and Recall AUC-ROC Log Loss R2 and Adjusted R2
Dealing with Missing Values Replacing Missing Values Imputing Missing Values in Data Working with Categorical Variables Working with Outliers Preprocessing Data for Model Building
Understanding Cost Function Understanding Gradient Descent Math Behind Gradient Descent Assumptions of Linear Regression Implement Linear Regression from Scratch Train Linear Regression in Python Implementing Linear Regression in R Diagnosing Residual Plots in Linear Regression Models Generalized Linear Models Introduction to Logistic Regression Odds Ratio Implementing Logistic Regression from Scratch Introduction to Scikit-learn in Python Train Logistic Regression in python Multiclass using Logistic Regression How to use Multinomial and Ordinal Logistic Regression in R ? Challenges with Linear Regression Introduction to Regularisation Implementing Regularisation Ridge Regression Lasso Regression
Introduction to K Nearest Neighbours Determining the Right Value of K in KNN Implement KNN from Scratch Implement KNN in Python
Bias Variance Tradeoff Introduction to Overfitting and Underfitting Visualizing Overfitting and Underfitting Selecting the Right Model What is Validation? Hold-Out Validation Understanding K Fold Cross Validation
Introduction to Feature Selection Feature Selection Algorithms Missing Value Ratio Low Variance Filter High Correlation Filter Backward Feature Elimination Forward Feature Selection Implement Feature Selection in Python Implement Feature Selection in R
Introduction to Decision Tree Purity in Decision Tree Terminologies Related to Decision Tree How to Select Best Split Point in Decision Tree? Chi-Squares Information Gain Reduction in Variance Optimizing Performance of Decision Tree Train Decision Tree using Scikit Learn Pruning of Decision Trees
Introduction to Feature Engineering Feature Transformation Feature Scaling Feature Engineering Frequency Encoding Automated Feature Engineering: Feature Tools
Introduction to Naive Bayes Conditional Probability and Bayes Theorem Introduction to Bayesian Adjustment Rating: The Incredible Concept Behind Online Ratings! Working of Naive Bayes Math behind Naive Bayes Types of Naive Bayes Implementation of Naive Bayes
Understanding how to solve Multiclass and Multilabled Classification Problem Evaluation Metrics: Multi Class Classification
Introduction to Ensemble Techniques Basic Ensemble Techniques Implementing Basic Ensemble Techniques Finding Optimal Weights of Ensemble Learner using Neural Network Why Ensemble Models Work well?
Introduction to Stacking Implementing Stacking Variants of Stacking Implementing Variants of Stacking Introduction to Blending Bootstrap Sampling Introduction to Random Sampling Hyper-parameters of Random Forest Implementing Random Forest Out-of-Bag (OOB) Score in the Random Forest IPL Team Win Prediction Project Using Machine Learning Introduction to Boosting Gradient Boosting Algorithm Math behind GBM Implementing GBM in python Regularized Greedy Forests Extreme Gradient Boosting Implementing XGBM in python Tuning Hyperparameters of XGBoost in Python Implement XGBM in R/H2O Adaptive Boosting Implementing Adaptive Boosing LightGBM Implementing LightGBM in Python Catboost Implementing Catboost in Python
Different Hyperparameter Tuning methods Implementing Different Hyperparameter Tuning methods GridsearchCV RandomizedsearchCV Bayesian Optimization for Hyperparameter Tuning Hyperopt
Understanding SVM Algorithm SVM Kernels In-depth Intuition and Practical Implementation SVM Kernel Tricks Kernels and Hyperparameters in SVM Implementing SVM from Scratch in Python and R
Introduction to Principal Component Analysis Steps to Perform Principal Compound Analysis Computation of Covariance Matrix Finding Eigenvectors and Eigenvalues Implementing PCA in python Visualizing PCA A Brief Introduction to Linear Discriminant Analysis Introduction to Factor Analysis
Introduction to Clustering Applications of Clustering Evaluation Metrics for Clustering Understanding K-Means Implementation of K-Means in Python Implementation of K-Means in R Choosing Right Value for K Profiling Market Segments using K-Means Clustering Hierarchical Clustering Implementation of Hierarchial Clustering DBSCAN Defining Similarity between clusters Build Better and Accurate Clusters with Gaussian Mixture Models
Understand Basics of Recommendation Engine with Case Study
8 Ways to Improve Accuracy of Machine Learning Models
Introduction to Dask Working with CuML
Introduction to Machine Learning Interpretability Framework and Interpretable Models model Agnostic Methods for Interpretability Implementing Interpretable Model Understanding SHAP Out-of-Core ML Introduction to Interpretable Machine Learning Models Model Agnostic Methods for Interpretability Game Theory & Shapley Values
Introduction to Machine Learning Interpretability Framework and Interpretable Models model Agnostic Methods for Interpretability Implementing Interpretable Model Understanding SHAP Out-of-Core ML Introduction to Interpretable Machine Learning Models Model Agnostic Methods for Interpretability Game Theory & Shapley Values
Introduction to AutoML Implementation of MLBox Introduction to PyCaret TPOT Auto-Sklearn EvalML
Pickle and Joblib Introduction to Model Deployment
Deploying Machine Learning Model using Streamlit Deploying ML Models in Docker Deploy Using Streamlit Deploy on Heroku Deploy Using Netlify Introduction to Amazon Sagemaker Setting up Amazon SageMaker Using SageMaker Endpoint to Generate Inference Deploy on Microsoft Azure Cloud Introduction to Flask for Model Deploying ML model using Flask
Model Deployment in Android Model Deployment in Iphone

Support Vector Machine – Simplified

Tavish Srivastava
Tavish Srivastava Last Updated : 14 Dec, 2022
4 min read

The first time I heard the name “Support Vector Machine”, I felt, if the name itself sounds so complicated the formulation of the concept will be beyond my understanding. Luckily, I saw a few university lecture videos and realized how easy and effective this tool was. In this article, we will talk about how support vector machine works. This article is suitable for readers who do not know much about this algorithm and have a curiosity to learn a new technique. In following articles we will explore the technique in detail and analyze cases where such techniques are stronger than other techniques.

support vector machines, beginners guide, simple explanation

What is a classification analysis?

Let’s consider an example to understand these concepts. We have a population composed of 50%-50% Males and Females. Using a sample of this population, you want to create some set of rules which will guide us the gender class for rest of the population. Using this algorithm, we intend to build a robot which can identify whether a person is a Male or a Female. This is a sample problem of classification analysis. Using some set of rules, we will try to classify the population into two possible segments. For simplicity, let’s assume that the two differentiating factors identified are : Height of the individual and Hair Length. Following is a scatter plot of the sample.

xyplotThe blue circles in the plot represent females and green squares represents male. A few expected insights from the graph are :

1. Males in our population have a higher average height.

2. Females in our population have longer scalp hairs.

If we were to see an individual with height 180 cms and hair length 4 cms, our best guess will be to classify this individual as a male. This is how we do a classification analysis.

What is a Support Vector and what is SVM?

Support Vectors are simply the co-ordinates of individual observation. For instance, (45,150) is a support vector which corresponds to a female. Support Vector Machine is a frontier which best segregates the Male from the Females. In this case, the two classes are well separated from each other, hence it is easier to find a SVM.

How to find the Support Vector Machine for case in hand?

There are many possible frontier which can classify the problem in hand. Following are the three possible frontiers.

xyplot1

How do we decide which is the best frontier for this particular problem statement?

The easiest way to interpret the objective function in a SVM is to find the minimum distance of the frontier from closest support vector (this can belong to any class). For instance, orange frontier is closest to blue circles. And the closest blue circle is 2 units away from the frontier. Once we have these distances for all the frontiers, we simply choose the frontier with the maximum distance (from the closest support vector). Out of the three shown frontiers, we see the black frontier is farthest from nearest support vector (i.e. 15 units).

What if we do not find a clean frontier which segregates the classes?

Our job was relatively easier finding the SVM in this business case. What if the distribution looked something like as follows :

xyplot2

In such cases, we do not see a straight line frontier directly in current plane which can serve as the SVM. In such cases, we need to map these vector to a higher dimension plane so that they get segregated from each other. Such cases will be covered once we start with the formulation of SVM. For now, you can visualize that such transformation will result into following type of SVM.

xyplot3

Each of the green square in original distribution is mapped on a transformed scale. And transformed scale has clearly segregated classes. Many algorithms have been proposed to make these transformations and some of which will be discussed in following articles.

End Notes

Support Vector Machines are very powerful classification algorithm. When used in conjunction with random forest and other machine learning tools, they give a very different dimension to ensemble models. Hence, they become very crucial for cases where very high predictive power is required. Such algorithms are slightly harder to visualize because of the complexity in formulation. You will find these algorithm very useful to solve some of the Kaggle problem statement.

Did you find the article useful? Have you used any other machine learning tool recently? How do you think SVM is different when compared to CART/CHAID models? Do you plan to use SVM in any of your business problems? If yes, share with us how you plan to go about it.

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Tavish Srivastava
Tavish Srivastava

Tavish Srivastava, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Analytics Vidhya, is an IIT Madras graduate and a passionate data-science professional with 8+ years of diverse experience in markets including the US, India and Singapore, domains including Digital Acquisitions, Customer Servicing and Customer Management, and industry including Retail Banking, Credit Cards and Insurance. He is fascinated by the idea of artificial intelligence inspired by human intelligence and enjoys every discussion, theory or even movie related to this idea.

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Responses From Readers

Clear

Harshal
Harshal

It is very useful for kaggle. With "svm" package in R; data required in numerical only. It is also useful for high dimensional data ; and also where dimensions are more than observations.

123

Tavish
Tavish

True that

123
Naveen Mathew
Naveen Mathew

SVM is a very powerful classification tool. SVM + Cover's theorem combination has been used many times. It all started with the XOR gate. It's wonderful to see the range of problems it can solve.

123

Md. Siddikur Rahman
Md. Siddikur Rahman

Give me some practical examples using R codes..

123

Tavish
Tavish

Sidshikur, We have a few articles in pipeline which will answer your query. Tavish

123

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