A General Kernel Framework for Non-CND Distance Measures Using |D|-Dimensional Sparse Landmark Embeddings
Read the original on arXiv Machine Learning →The paper introduces the Sparse Landmark Embedding (SLE) kernel, a new framework that removes the need for conditionally negative definite (CND) distance measures in kernel methods and Gaussian Processes. By embedding each input into a sparse feature vector using compactly supported bump functions centered at all training points, any standard positive semi-definite (PSD) kernel can be applied in this embedding space, guaranteeing PSD for arbitrary distance measures. The authors provide theoretical guarantees on PSD, sparsity, stability, and universal approximation, and show through experiments with geodesic and Wasserstein distances that the SLE kernel matches or surpasses domain-specific baselines in predictive accuracy and uncertainty quantification.
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