How can One-Class SVM be used for novelty detection?

Updated May 5, 2026

Short answer

It learns a hypersphere or boundary around 'normal' data[cite: 1].

Deep explanation

It maps data to a high-dimensional space and finds a hyperplane that separates the majority of data from the origin[cite: 1].

Real-world example

Detecting a new, unseen manufacturing defect[cite: 1].

Common mistakes

  • Using it on datasets with many existing anomalies during training[cite: 1].

Follow-up questions

  • Best kernel for One-Class SVM?

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