Converting LinearSVC's decision function to probabilities (Scikit learn python )
scikit-learn provides CalibratedClassifierCV which can be used to solve this problem: it allows to add probability output to LinearSVC or any other classifier which implements decision_function method:
svm = LinearSVC()
clf = CalibratedClassifierCV(svm)
clf.fit(X_train, y_train)
y_proba = clf.predict_proba(X_test)
User guide has a nice section on that. By default CalibratedClassifierCV+LinearSVC will get you Platt scaling, but it also provides other options (isotonic regression method), and it is not limited to SVM classifiers.
I took a look at the apis in sklearn.svm.* family. All below models, e.g.,
- sklearn.svm.SVC
- sklearn.svm.NuSVC
- sklearn.svm.SVR
- sklearn.svm.NuSVR
have a common interface that supplies a
probability: boolean, optional (default=False)
parameter to the model. If this parameter is set to True, libsvm will train a probability transformation model on top of the SVM's outputs based on idea of Platt Scaling. The form of transformation is similar to a logistic function as you pointed out, however two specific constants A
and B
are learned in a post-processing step. Also see this stackoverflow post for more details.
I actually don't know why this post-processing is not available for LinearSVC. Otherwise, you would just call predict_proba(X)
to get the probability estimate.
Of course, if you just apply a naive logistic transform, it will not perform as well as a calibrated approach like Platt Scaling. If you can understand the underline algorithm of platt scaling, probably you can write your own or contribute to the scikit-learn svm family. :) Also feel free to use the above four SVM variations that support predict_proba
.
If you want speed, then just replace the SVM with sklearn.linear_model.LogisticRegression
. That uses the exact same training algorithm as LinearSVC
, but with log-loss instead of hinge loss.
Using [1 / (1 + exp(-x))] will produce probabilities, in a formal sense (numbers between zero and one), but they won't adhere to any justifiable probability model.