Resampling approach for imbalanced data classification based on class instance density per feature value intervals

Abstract

In practical applications, imbalanced datasets significantly degrade the classification performance of machine learning models. However, most conventional resampling approaches fall short in adequately addressing the varying contributions of individual features to the classification model. In response to this defect, this study introduces three novel resampling approaches. The first approach, Oversampling based on class instance density per feature value intervals (OCF), focuses on augmenting the dataset. The second approach, Undersampling based on class instance density per feature value intervals (UCF), seeks to reduce dataset size. The third approach, Hybrid sampling based on class instance density per feature value intervals (HSCF), which can perform oversampling and undersampling simultaneously. These approaches categorize feature value into different intervals based on their varying information content, calculate class instance densities within these intervals, and generate feature values in intervals with high discriminative information. Subsequently, these generated features are combined to synthesize minority class data, effectively achieving oversampling. Additionally, the study combines class instance density and feature importance to identify majority class data at the classification boundary with minimal contribution and subsequently executes undersampling. The flexibility to adjust sampling ratios and the integration of OCF and UCF enable the implementation of hybrid sampling. Finally, experiments on the benchmark dataset demonstrate the superiority and effectiveness of the proposed method. Furthermore, it is observed that the method proposed in this study enhances the feature dividing capability of decision tree classifiers. Hence, the best results are achieved when working in synergy with decision tree classifiers, leading to the most significant improvements in classification performance. All codes have been published at https://github.com/Wangfeiopen/HSCF.