Uncertainty guided semi-supervised neural network training for image classification

A system comprising:

• a memory having computer readable instructions;
• and
• one or more processors for executing the computer readable instructions, the computer readable instructions controlling the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
• training a teacher neural network using labeled images to obtain a trained teacher neural network, each pixel of each of the labeled images being assigned a label that indicates one of a set of classifications;
• providing a set of unlabeled images to the trained teacher neural network to generate a set of soft-labeled images, each pixel of each of the soft-labeled images being assigned a soft label that indicates one of the set of classifications and an uncertainty value associated with the soft label;
• training a student neural network with a subset of the labeled images and the set of soft-labeled images to obtain a trained student neural network;
• and
• obtaining student-labeled images from unlabeled images using the trained student neural network.

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• training a teacher neural network using labeled images to obtain a trained teacher neural network, each pixel of each of the labeled images being assigned a label that indicates one of a set of classifications;
• providing a set of unlabeled images to the trained teacher neural network to generate a set of soft-labeled images, each pixel of each of the soft-labeled images being assigned a soft label that indicates one of the set of classifications and an uncertainty value associated with the soft label;
• training a student neural network with a subset of the labeled images and the set of soft-labeled images to obtain a trained student neural network;
• and
• obtaining student-labeled images from unlabeled images using the trained student neural network.