University of Texas at Austin

Machine Learning Group

Machine Learning Group
Department of Computer Sciences
University of Texas at Austin
Support Vector Machines
2 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Perceptron Revisited: Linear Separators
Binary classification can be viewed as the task of
separating classes in feature space:
w
T
x + b = 0
w
T
x + b < 0
w
T
x + b > 0
f(x) = sign(w
T
x + b)
3 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Linear Separators
Which of the linear separators is optimal?
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Machine Learning Group
Classification Margin
Distance from example x
i
to the separator is
Examples closest to the hyperplane are support vectors.
Margin of the separator is the distance between support vectors.

w
x w b
r
i
T
+
=
r

5 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Maximum Margin Classification
Maximizing the margin is good according to intuition and
PAC theory.
Implies that only support vectors matter; other training
examples are ignorable.
6 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Linear SVM Mathematically
Let training set {(x
i
, y
i
)}
i=1..n
, x
i
eR
d
, y
i
e

{-1, 1} be separated by a
hyperplane with margin . Then for each training example (x
i
, y
i
):



For every support vector x
s
the above inequality is an equality.
After rescaling w and b by /2 in the equality, we obtain that
distance between each x
s
and the hyperplane is

Then the margin can be expressed through (rescaled) w and b as:
w
T
x
i
+ b - /2 if y
i
= -1
w
T
x
i
+ b /2 if y
i
= 1
w
2
2 = = r
w w
x w 1 ) ( y
=
+
=
b
r
s
T
s
y
i
(w
T
x
i
+ b) /2

7 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Linear SVMs Mathematically (cont.)
Then we can formulate the quadratic optimization problem:





Which can be reformulated as:
Find w and b such that
is maximized
and for all (x
i
, y
i
), i=1..n : y
i
(w
T
x
i
+ b) 1
w
2
=
Find w and b such that
(w) = ||w||
2
=w
T
w is minimized
and for all (x
i
, y
i
), i=1..n : y
i
(w
T
x
i
+ b) 1
8 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Solving the Optimization Problem




Need to optimize a quadratic function subject to linear constraints.
Quadratic optimization problems are a well-known class of mathematical
programming problems for which several (non-trivial) algorithms exist.
The solution involves constructing a dual problem where a Lagrange
multiplier
i
is associated with every inequality constraint in the primal
(original) problem:

Find w and b such that
(w) =w
T
w is minimized
and for all (x
i
, y
i
), i=1..n : y
i
(w
T
x
i
+ b) 1
Find
1

n
such that
Q() =
i
-
i

j
y
i
y
j
x
i
T
x
j
is maximized and
(1)
i
y
i
= 0
(2)
i
0 for all
i

9 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
The Optimization Problem Solution
Given a solution
1

n
to the dual problem, solution to the primal is:



Each non-zero
i
indicates that corresponding x
i
is a support vector.
Then the classifying function is (note that we dont need w explicitly):



Notice that it relies on an inner product between the test point x and the
support vectors x
i
we will return to this later.
Also keep in mind that solving the optimization problem involved
computing the inner products x
i
T
x
j
between all training points.
w =
i
y
i
x
i
b = y
k
-
i
y
i
x
i
T
x
k
for any
k
> 0
f(x) =
i
y
i
x
i
T
x + b
10 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Soft Margin Classification
What if the training set is not linearly separable?
Slack variables
i
can be added to allow misclassification of difficult or
noisy examples, resulting margin called soft.

i
11 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Soft Margin Classification Mathematically
The old formulation:




Modified formulation incorporates slack variables:




Parameter C can be viewed as a way to control overfitting: it trades off
the relative importance of maximizing the margin and fitting the training
data.
Find w and b such that
(w) =w
T
w is minimized
and for all (x
i
,y
i
), i=1..n : y
i
(w
T
x
i
+ b) 1
Find w and b such that
(w) =w
T
w + C
i
is minimized
and for all (x
i
,y
i
), i=1..n : y
i
(w
T
x
i
+ b) 1
i,
,
i
0
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Machine Learning Group
Soft Margin Classification Solution
Dual problem is identical to separable case (would not be identical if the 2-
norm penalty for slack variables C
i
2
was used in primal objective, we
would need additional Lagrange multipliers for slack variables):





Again, x
i
with non-zero
i
will be support vectors.
Solution to the dual problem is:
Find
1

N
such that
Q() =
i
-
i

j
y
i
y
j
x
i
T
x
j
is maximized and
(1)
i
y
i
= 0
(2) 0
i
C for all
i
w =
i
y
i
x
i
b= y
k
(1-
k
) -
i
y
i
x
i
T
x
k
for any k s.t.
k
>0
f(x) =
i
y
i
x
i
T
x + b
Again, we dont need to
compute w explicitly for
classification:
13 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Theoretical Justification for Maximum Margins
Vapnik has proved the following:
The class of optimal linear separators has VC dimension h bounded from
above as

where is the margin, D is the diameter of the smallest sphere that can
enclose all of the training examples, and m
0
is the dimensionality.

Intuitively, this implies that regardless of dimensionality m
0
we can
minimize the VC dimension by maximizing the margin .

Thus, complexity of the classifier is kept small regardless of
dimensionality.


1 , min
0
2
2
+
)
`

(
(
(

s m
D
h

14 University of Texas at Austin

Machine Learning Group
Linear SVMs: Overview
The classifier is a separating hyperplane.

Most important training points are support vectors; they define the
hyperplane.

Quadratic optimization algorithms can identify which training points x
i
are
support vectors with non-zero Lagrangian multipliers
i
.

Both in the dual formulation of the problem and in the solution training
points appear only inside inner products:

Find
1

N
such that
Q() =
i
-
i

j
y
i
y
j
x
i
T
x
j
is maximized and
(1)
i
y
i
= 0
(2) 0
i
C for all
i
f(x) =
i
y
i
x
i
T
x + b
15 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Non-linear SVMs
Datasets that are linearly separable with some noise work out great:



But what are we going to do if the dataset is just too hard?


How about mapping data to a higher-dimensional space:
0
0
0
x
2
x

x

x

16 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Non-linear SVMs: Feature spaces
General idea: the original feature space can always be mapped to some
higher-dimensional feature space where the training set is separable:
: x

(x)
17 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
The Kernel Trick
The linear classifier relies on inner product between vectors K(x
i
,x
j
)=x
i
T
x
j
If every datapoint is mapped into high-dimensional space via some
transformation : x

(x), the inner product becomes:
K(x
i
,x
j
)= (x
i
)

T
(x
j
)
A kernel function is a function that is eqiuvalent to an inner product in
some feature space.
Example:
2-dimensional vectors x=[x
1
x
2
]; let K(x
i
,x
j
)=(1 + x
i
T
x
j
)
2
,

Need to show that K(x
i
,x
j
)= (x
i
)

T
(x
j
):
K(x
i
,x
j
)=(1 + x
i
T
x
j
)
2
,
= 1+ x
i1
2
x
j1
2
+ 2 x
i1
x
j1

x
i2
x
j2
+ x
i2
2
x
j2
2
+ 2x
i1
x
j1
+ 2x
i2
x
j2
=
= [1 x
i1
2
2 x
i1
x
i2
x
i2
2
2x
i1
2x
i2
]
T
[1 x
j1
2
2 x
j1
x
j2
x
j2
2
2x
j1
2x
j2
] =
= (x
i
)

T
(x
j
), where (x) =

[1 x
1
2
2 x
1
x
2
x
2
2
2x
1
2x
2
]
Thus, a kernel function implicitly maps data to a high-dimensional space
(without the need to compute each (x) explicitly).
18 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
What Functions are Kernels?
For some functions K(x
i
,x
j
) checking that K(x
i
,x
j
)= (x
i
)

T
(x
j
) can be
cumbersome.
Mercers theorem:
Every semi-positive definite symmetric function is a kernel
Semi-positive definite symmetric functions correspond to a semi-positive
definite symmetric Gram matrix:

K(x
1
,x
1
) K(x
1
,x
2
) K(x
1
,x
3
) K(x
1
,x
n
)
K(x
2
,x
1
) K(x
2
,x
2
) K(x
2
,x
3
) K(x
2
,x
n
)

K(x
n
,x
1
) K(x
n
,x
2
) K(x
n
,x
3
) K(x
n
,x
n
)
K=
19 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Examples of Kernel Functions
Linear: K(x
i
,x
j
)= x
i
T
x
j
Mapping : x

(x), where (x) is x itself



Polynomial of power p: K(x
i
,x
j
)= (1+ x
i
T
x
j
)
p
Mapping : x

(x), where (x) has dimensions


Gaussian (radial-basis function): K(x
i
,x
j
) =
Mapping : x

(x), where (x) is infinite-dimensional: every point is
mapped to a function (a Gaussian); combination of functions for support
vectors is the separator.

Higher-dimensional space still has intrinsic dimensionality d (the mapping
is not onto), but linear separators in it correspond to non-linear separators
in original space.
2
2
2o
j i
e
x x

|
|
.
|

\
| +
p
p d
20 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
Non-linear SVMs Mathematically
Dual problem formulation:





The solution is:



Optimization techniques for finding
i
s remain the same!
Find
1

n
such that
Q() =
i
-
i

j
y
i
y
j
K(x
i
,

x
j
) is maximized and
(1)
i
y
i
= 0
(2)
i
0 for all
i

f(x) =
i
y
i
K(x
i
,

x
j
)+ b
21 University of Texas at Austin
Machine Learning Group
SVM applications
SVMs were originally proposed by Boser, Guyon and Vapnik in 1992 and
gained increasing popularity in late 1990s.
SVMs are currently among the best performers for a number of classification
tasks ranging from text to genomic data.
SVMs can be applied to complex data types beyond feature vectors (e.g. graphs,
sequences, relational data) by designing kernel functions for such data.
SVM techniques have been extended to a number of tasks such as regression
[Vapnik et al. 97], principal component analysis [Schlkopf et al. 99], etc.
Most popular optimization algorithms for SVMs use decomposition to hill-
climb over a subset of
i
s at a time, e.g. SMO [Platt 99] and

[Joachims 99]
Tuning SVMs remains a black art: selecting a specific kernel and parameters is
usually done in a try-and-see manner.