Book Image

Applied Unsupervised Learning with R

By : Alok Malik, Bradford Tuckfield
Book Image

Applied Unsupervised Learning with R

By: Alok Malik, Bradford Tuckfield

Overview of this book

Starting with the basics, Applied Unsupervised Learning with R explains clustering methods, distribution analysis, data encoders, and features of R that enable you to understand your data better and get answers to your most pressing business questions. This book begins with the most important and commonly used method for unsupervised learning - clustering - and explains the three main clustering algorithms - k-means, divisive, and agglomerative. Following this, you'll study market basket analysis, kernel density estimation, principal component analysis, and anomaly detection. You'll be introduced to these methods using code written in R, with further instructions on how to work with, edit, and improve R code. To help you gain a practical understanding, the book also features useful tips on applying these methods to real business problems, including market segmentation and fraud detection. By working through interesting activities, you'll explore data encoders and latent variable models. By the end of this book, you will have a better understanding of different anomaly detection methods, such as outlier detection, Mahalanobis distances, and contextual and collective anomaly detection.
Table of Contents (9 chapters)

Introduction


Unsupervised learning is concerned with analyzing the structure of data to draw useful conclusions. In this chapter, we will examine methods that enable us to use the structure of data to compare datasets. The major methods we will look at are hash functions, analytic signatures, and latent variable models.

Hash Functions

Imagine that you want to send an R script to your friend. However, you and your friend have been having technical problems with your files – maybe your computers have been infected by malware, or maybe a hacker is tampering with your files. So, you need a way to ensure that your script is sent intact to your friend, without being corrupted or changed. One way to check that files are intact is to use hash functions.

A hash function can create something like a fingerprint for data. What we mean by a fingerprint is something that is small and easy to check that enables us to verify whether the data has the identity we think it should have. So, after you create the...