001/*
002 *                    BioJava development code
003 *
004 * This code may be freely distributed and modified under the
005 * terms of the GNU Lesser General Public Licence.  This should
006 * be distributed with the code.  If you do not have a copy,
007 * see:
008 *
009 *      http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/lesser.html
010 *
011 * Copyright for this code is held jointly by the individual
012 * authors.  These should be listed in @author doc comments.
013 *
014 * For more information on the BioJava project and its aims,
015 * or to join the biojava-l mailing list, visit the home page
016 * at:
017 *
018 *      http://www.biojava.org/
019 *
020 */
021
022
023package org.biojava.stats.svm;
024
025/**
026 * Kernel for support vector machines and related methods.
027 * <p>
028 * It is hoped that all implementations of SVMKernel will be serializable,
029 * as this will allow models to be stored and retrieved without inventing
030 * complex data formats.
031 *
032 * @author Thomas Down.
033 */
034public interface SVMKernel {
035    /**
036     * Return the dot product of two vectors in an arbitrary
037     * feature space.  In this implementation, the `vectors'
038     * can actually be arbitrary objects.
039     */
040    public double evaluate(Object a, Object b);
041}