English

The Mondrian Kernel

Machine Learning 2016-06-17 v1

Abstract

We introduce the Mondrian kernel, a fast random feature approximation to the Laplace kernel. It is suitable for both batch and online learning, and admits a fast kernel-width-selection procedure as the random features can be re-used efficiently for all kernel widths. The features are constructed by sampling trees via a Mondrian process [Roy and Teh, 2009], and we highlight the connection to Mondrian forests [Lakshminarayanan et al., 2014], where trees are also sampled via a Mondrian process, but fit independently. This link provides a new insight into the relationship between kernel methods and random forests.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1606.05241,
  title  = {The Mondrian Kernel},
  author = {Matej Balog and Balaji Lakshminarayanan and Zoubin Ghahramani and Daniel M. Roy and Yee Whye Teh},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.05241},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Accepted for presentation at the 32nd Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI 2016)

R2 v1 2026-06-22T14:27:10.222Z