K-Means Algorithm
K-Means Clustering is an Unsupervised Learning algorithm, which groups the unlabeled
dataset into different clusters. Here K defines the number of pre-defined clusters that need to
be created in the process, as if K=2, there will be two clusters, and for K=3, there will be three
clusters, and so on.
It allows us to cluster the data into different groups and a convenient way to discover the
categories of groups in the unlabeled dataset on its own without the need for any training.
It is a centroid-based algorithm, where each cluster is associated with a centroid. The main aim
of this algorithm is to minimize the sum of distances between the data point and their
corresponding clusters.
The algorithm takes the unlabeled dataset as input, divides the dataset into k-number of
clusters, and repeats the process until it does not find the best clusters. The value of k should
be predetermined in this algorithm.
The k-means clustering algorithm mainly performs two tasks:
o Determines the best value for K center points or centroids by an iterative process.
o Assigns each data point to its closest k-center. Those data points which are near to the
particular k-center, create a cluster.
o Hence each cluster has datapoints with some commonalities, and it is away from other
clusters.
o The below diagram explains the working of the K-means Clustering Algorithm:
Unit-3 NEHA UNNISA
Machine Learning Asst Prof
How does the K-Means Algorithm Work?
The working of the K-Means algorithm is explained in the below steps:
o Step-1: Select the number K to decide the number of clusters.
o Step-2: Select random K points or centroids. (It can be other from the input dataset).
o Step-3: Assign each data point to their closest centroid, which will form the predefined
K clusters.
o Step-4: Calculate the variance and place a new centroid of each cluster.
o Step-5: Repeat the third steps, which means reassign each datapoint to the new closest
centroid of each cluster.
o Step-6: If any reassignment occurs, then go to step-4 else go to FINISH.
o Step-7: The model is ready.
Let's understand the above steps by considering the visual plots:
Suppose we have two variables M1 and M2. The x-y axis scatter plot of these two
variables is given below:
o Let's take number k of clusters, i.e., K=2, to identify the dataset and to put them into
different clusters. It means here we will try to group these datasets into two different
clusters.
o We need to choose some random k points or centroid to form the cluster. These points
can be either the points from the dataset or any other point. So, here we are selecting
the below two points as k points, which are not the part of our dataset. Consider the
below image:
Unit-3 NEHA UNNISA
Machine Learning Asst Prof
o
o Now we will assign each data point of the scatter plot to its closest K-point or centroid.
We will compute it by applying some mathematics that we have studied to calculate the
distance between two points. So, we will draw a median between both the centroids.
Consider the below image:
From the above image, it is clear that points left side of the line is near to the K1 or blue
centroid, and points to the right of the line are close to the yellow centroid. Let's color them as
blue and yellow for clear visualization.
As we need to find the closest cluster, so we will repeat the process by choosing a new
centroid. To choose the new centroids, we will compute the center of gravity of these centroids,
and will find new centroids as below:
Unit-3 NEHA UNNISA
Machine Learning Asst Prof
Next, we will reassign each datapoint to the new centroid. For this, we will repeat the same
process of finding a median line. The median will be like below image:
From the above image, we can see, one yellow point is on the left side of the line, and two blue
points are right to the line. So, these three points will be assigned to new centroids.
As reassignment has taken place, so we will again go to the step-4, which is finding new
centroids or K-points.
We will repeat the process by finding the center of gravity of centroids, so the new centroids
will be as shown in the below image
Unit-3 NEHA UNNISA
Machine Learning Asst Prof
As we got the new centroids so again will draw the median line and reassign the data points. So, the
image will be:
We can see in the above image; there are no dissimilar data points on either side of the line,
which means our model is formed. Consider the below image:
As our model is ready, so we can now remove the assumed centroids, and the two final clusters
will be as shown in the below image:
Unit-3 NEHA UNNISA
Machine Learning Asst Prof
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