Universal consistency of twin support vector machines

A classification problem aims at constructing a best classifier with the smallest risk. When the sample size approaches infinity, the learning algorithms for a classification problem are characterized by an asymptotical property, i.e., universal consistency. It plays a crucial role in measuring the construction of classification rules. A universal consistent algorithm ensures that the larger the sample size of the algorithm is, the more accurately the distribution of the samples could be reconstructed. Support vector machines (SVMs) are regarded as one of the most important models in binary classification problems. How to effectively extend SVMs to twin support vector machines (TWSVMs) so as to improve performance of classification has gained increasing interest in many research areas recently. Many variants for TWSVMs have been proposed and used in practice. Thus in this paper, we focus on the universal consistency of TWSVMs in a binary classification setting. We first give a general framework for TWSVM classifiers that unifies most of the variants of TWSVMs for binary classification problems. Based on it, we then investigate the universal consistency of TWSVMs. To do this, we give some useful definitions of risk, Bayes risk and universal consistency for TWSVMs. Theoretical results indicate that universal consistency is valid for various TWSVM classifiers under some certain conditions, including covering number, localized covering number and stability. For applications of our general framework, several variants of TWSVMs are considered.