Convolutions are one of the key features behind Convolutional Neural Networks. For the details of working of CNNs, refer to Introduction to Convolution Neural Network. Feature Learning Feature Engineering or Feature Extraction is the process of extracting useful patterns from input data that will help the prediction model to understand better the real nature of the problem. A good feature learning will present patterns in a way that increase significantly the accuracy and performance of the applied machine learning algorithms in a way that would be impossible or too expensive by the machine learning itself. Feature learning algorithms find the common patterns that are important to distinguish between the wanted classes and extract them automatically. After this process, they are ready to be used in a classification or regression problem. Let us consider a popular image classification problem, classification of images of a face and a non-face object. In the early days of computer vision, scientists tried to solve the problem by hand coding the detection algorithms of possible features of a human face like shape, eyes, nose, lips etc. This approach usually gave poor results because a face may appear in so many varieties, that it was not possible to account for even a significant fraction of the features. Just a simple change in lighting or orientation can bring about change in an image such that the algorithms were no longer able to detect faces. In 1998, Yann Lecun introduced the concept of Convolutional Neural Networks which was capable of classifying images of handwritten characters with about 99% accuracy. The great advantage of Convolutional Neural Networks is that they are uncommonly good at finding features in images that grow after each level, resulting in high-level features in the end. The final layers (can be one or more) use all these generated features for classification or regression. Convolution Convolution is an operation that is performed on an image to extract features from it applying a smaller tensor called a kernel like a sliding window over the image. Depending on the values in the convolutional kernel, we can pick up specific patterns from the image. In the following example, we will demonstrate detection of horizontal and vertical edges in an image using appropriate kernels. Convolution is a mathematical operation that is used to combine two functions to form a third function that expresses how the shape of one is modified by the other. In the context of image processing and computer vision, convolutions are used to extract features from images. In Python, one popular library for image processing and computer vision is OpenCV. OpenCV has the function cv2.filter2D() which can be used to apply a convolution to an image. Python3
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Advantages and Disdvantages:Advantages of using convolution in image processing and computer vision include:
Disadvantages of using convolution in image processing and computer vision include:
References:There are several books that provide in-depth coverage of convolution and its applications in image processing and computer vision. Some popular ones include: |