US 10,311,342 B1 · System and methods for efficiently implementing a convolutional neural network incorporating binarized filter and convolution operation for performing image classification

Abstract

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for efficiently and accurately processing an image in order to detect and identify one or more objects contained in the image, and methods that may be implemented on mobile or other resource constrained devices. Embodiments of the invention introduce simple, efficient, and accurate approximations to the functions performed by a convolutional neural network (CNN); this is achieved by binarization (i.e., converting one form of data to binary values) of the weights and of the intermediate representations of data in a convolutional neural network. The inventive binarization methods include optimization processes that determine the best approximations of the convolution operations that are part of implementing a CNN using binary operations.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A method for processing an image, comprising:

by a camera of a mobile computing device, capturing the image;
by a processor of the mobile computing device, inputting data representing the image into a convolutional neural network (CNN), the CNN including a plurality of convolutional layers, a set of weights or filters for at least one of the layers, and a set of input data to the at least one of the layers;
by the processor of the mobile computing device, representing a convolution operation between the set of input data and the set of filters or weights by a product of a scaling factor and a binary representation of the set of filters or weights convolved with the set of input data, wherein the binary representation is the sign of the weight values, and the scaling factor is the average of the absolute weight values;
and
by the processor of the mobile computing device, applying a classification operation to an output of the last of the plurality of convolutional layers.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and methods for efficiently implementing a convolutional neural network incorporating binarized filter and convolution operation for performing image classification

Life of this patent

System and methods for efficiently implementing a convolutional neural network incorporating binarized filter and convolution operation for performing image classification

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17