Solved – How does SVM prediction work

classificationsvm

As far as I understand, the training phase usually uses the dual optimization formulation where we can implicitly calculate the weight vector which defines the discriminant function.

How about the prediction phase, how do we use these weights and the kernel function when a new test sample arrives?

edit: I should clarify, I am interested in the nonlinear SVM.

Best Answer

For what I understand, once a new document arrives, SVM just applies the discriminant function and decides if the document is going to be classified or not. This would mean that the kernel function is not exploited in the test phase.

You can find a very good introduction to SVM in this tutorial by a UCL PhD student. In addition, this videolecture from the Machine Learning Summer School (from 2006) is very informative as well.

Regards,

Related Question