Support Vector Machines
A Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a classifier that is defined using a separating hyperplane between the classes. This hyperplane is the N-dimensional version of a line. Given labeled training data and a binary classification problem, the SVM finds the optimal hyperplane that separates the training data into two classes. This can easily be extended to the problem with N classes.
Let's consider a two-dimensional case with two classes of points. Given that it's 2D, we only have to deal with points and lines in a 2D plane. This is easier to visualize than vectors and hyperplanes in a high-dimensional space. Of course, this is a simplified version of the SVM problem, but it is important to understand it and visualize it before we can apply it to high-dimensional data.
Consider the following figure:
There are two classes of points and we want to find the optimal hyperplane to separate the two classes. But how do we define optimal? In this picture, the solid line represents...
