A method for operating a computer as a support vector machine (SVM) in order to define a decision surface separating two opposing classes of a training set of vectors. The method involves associating a distance parameter with each vector of the SVM's training set. The distance parameter indicates a distance from its associated vector, being in a first class, to the opposite class. A number of approaches to calculating distance parameters are provided. For example, a distance parameter may be calculated as the average of the distances from its associated vector to each of the vectors in the opposite class. The method further involves determining a linearly independent set of support vectors from the training set such that the sum of the distances associated with the linearly independent support vectors is minimized.