Kernel matrix trimming for improved Kernel K-means clustering

The Kernel k-Means algorithm for clustering extends the classic k-Means clustering algorithm. It uses the kernel trick to implicitly calculate distances on a higher dimensional space, thus overcoming the classic algorithm´s inability to handle data that are not linearly separable. Given a set of n elements to cluster, the n × n kernel matrix is calculated, which contains the dot products in the higher dimensional space of every possible combination of two elements. This matrix is then referenced to calculate the distance between an element and a cluster center, as per classic k-Means. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm for zeroing elements of the kernel matrix, thus trimming the matrix, which results in reduced memory complexity and improved clustering performance.