Explaining Support Vector Machines: A Color Based Nomogram.

Journal: PloS one
Published Date:

Abstract

PROBLEM SETTING: Support vector machines (SVMs) are very popular tools for classification, regression and other problems. Due to the large choice of kernels they can be applied with, a large variety of data can be analysed using these tools. Machine learning thanks its popularity to the good performance of the resulting models. However, interpreting the models is far from obvious, especially when non-linear kernels are used. Hence, the methods are used as black boxes. As a consequence, the use of SVMs is less supported in areas where interpretability is important and where people are held responsible for the decisions made by models.

Authors

  • Vanya Van Belle
    Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), STADIUS Center for Dynamical Systems, Signal Processing and Data Analytics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
  • Ben Van Calster
  • Sabine Van Huffel
    Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
  • Johan A K Suykens
    KU Leuven, ESAT-STADIUS, Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, B-3001 Leuven (Heverlee), Belgium. Electronic address: johan.suykens@esat.kuleuven.be.
  • Paulo Lisboa
    Department of Applied Mathematics, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, United Kingdom.