KMOD - a new support vector machine kernel with moderate decreasing for pattern recognition. Application to digit image recognition

A new direction in machine learning area has emerged from Vapnik´s theory in support vectors machine (SVM) and its applications on pattern recognition. In this paper we propose a new SVM kernel family, called KMOD (kernel with moderate decreasing) with distinctive properties that allow better discrimination in the feature space. The experiments that we carry out show its effectiveness on synthetic and large-scale data. We found KMOD performs better than RBF and exponential RBF kernels on the two-spiral problem. In addition, a digit recognition task was processed using the proposed kernel. The results show, at least, comparable performances to state of the art kernels