In this project, you’ll classify images from the CIFAR-10 dataset. The dataset consists of airplanes, dogs, cats, and other objects. You’ll preprocess the images, then train a convolutional neural network on all the samples. The images need to be normalized and the labels need to be one-hot encoded. You’ll get to apply what you learned and build a convolutional, max pooling, dropout, and fully connected layers. At the end, you’ll get to see your neural network’s predictions on the sample images.
The dataset is broken into batches to prevent your machine from running out of memory. The CIFAR-10 dataset consists of 5 batches, named data_batch_1, data_batch_2, etc.. Each batch contains the labels and images that are one of the following:
airplane
automobile
bird
cat
deer
dog
frog
horse
ship
truck
Understanding a dataset is part of making predictions on the data. Play around with the code cell below by changing the batch_id and sample_id. The batch_id is the id for a batch (1-5). The sample_id is the id for a image and label pair in the batch.
Ask yourself “What are all possible labels?”, “What is the range of values for the image data?”, “Are the labels in order or random?“. Answers to questions like these will help you preprocess the data and end up with better predictions.
Implement Preprocess Functions
Normalize
In the cell below, implement the normalize function to take in image data, x, and return it as a normalized Numpy array. The values should be in the range of 0 to 1, inclusive. The return object should be the same shape as x.
One-hot encode
Just like the previous code cell, you’ll be implementing a function for preprocessing. This time, you’ll implement the one_hot_encode function. The input, x, are a list of labels. Implement the function to return the list of labels as One-Hot encoded Numpy array. The possible values for labels are 0 to 9. The one-hot encoding function should return the same encoding for each value between each call to one_hot_encode. Make sure to save the map of encodings outside the function.
Hint:
Look into LabelBinarizer in the preprocessing module of sklearn.
Randomize Data
As you saw from exploring the data above, the order of the samples are randomized. It doesn’t hurt to randomize it again, but you don’t need to for this dataset.
Preprocess all the data and save it
Running the code cell below will preprocess all the CIFAR-10 data and save it to file. The code below also uses 10% of the training data for validation.
Check Point
This is your first checkpoint. If you ever decide to come back to this notebook or have to restart the notebook, you can start from here. The preprocessed data has been saved to disk.
Build the network
For the neural network, you’ll build each layer into a function. Most of the code you’ve seen has been outside of functions. To test your code more thoroughly, we require that you put each layer in a function. This allows us to give you better feedback and test for simple mistakes using our unittests before you submit your project.
Note: If you’re finding it hard to dedicate enough time for this course each week, we’ve provided a small shortcut to this part of the project. In the next couple of problems, you’ll have the option to use classes from the TensorFlow Layers or TensorFlow Layers (contrib) packages to build each layer, except the layers you build in the “Convolutional and Max Pooling Layer” section. TF Layers is similar to Keras’s and TFLearn’s abstraction to layers, so it’s easy to pickup.
However, if you would like to get the most out of this course, try to solve all the problems without using anything from the TF Layers packages. You can still use classes from other packages that happen to have the same name as ones you find in TF Layers! For example, instead of using the TF Layers version of the conv2d class, tf.layers.conv2d, you would want to use the TF Neural Network version of conv2d, tf.nn.conv2d.
Let’s begin!
Input
The neural network needs to read the image data, one-hot encoded labels, and dropout keep probability. Implement the following functions
Name the TensorFlow placeholder “keep_prob” using the TensorFlow name parameter in the TF Placeholder.
These names will be used at the end of the project to load your saved model.
Note: None for shapes in TensorFlow allow for a dynamic size.
Convolution and Max Pooling Layer
Convolution layers have a lot of success with images. For this code cell, you should implement the function conv2d_maxpool to apply convolution then max pooling:
Create the weight and bias using conv_ksize, conv_num_outputs and the shape of x_tensor.
Apply a convolution to x_tensor using weight and conv_strides.
We recommend you use same padding, but you’re welcome to use any padding.
Add bias
Add a nonlinear activation to the convolution.
Apply Max Pooling using pool_ksize and pool_strides.
We recommend you use same padding, but you’re welcome to use any padding.
When unpacking values as an argument in Python, look into the unpacking operator.
Flatten Layer
Implement the flatten function to change the dimension of x_tensor from a 4-D tensor to a 2-D tensor. The output should be the shape (Batch Size, Flattened Image Size). Shortcut option: you can use classes from the TensorFlow Layers or TensorFlow Layers (contrib) packages for this layer. For more of a challenge, only use other TensorFlow packages.
Fully-Connected Layer
Implement the fully_conn function to apply a fully connected layer to x_tensor with the shape (Batch Size, num_outputs). Shortcut option: you can use classes from the TensorFlow Layers or TensorFlow Layers (contrib) packages for this layer. For more of a challenge, only use other TensorFlow packages.
Output Layer
Implement the output function to apply a fully connected layer to x_tensor with the shape (Batch Size, num_outputs). Shortcut option: you can use classes from the TensorFlow Layers or TensorFlow Layers (contrib) packages for this layer. For more of a challenge, only use other TensorFlow packages.
Note: Activation, softmax, or cross entropy should not be applied to this.
Create Convolutional Model
Implement the function conv_net to create a convolutional neural network model. The function takes in a batch of images, x, and outputs logits. Use the layers you created above to create this model:
Implement the function train_neural_network to do a single optimization. The optimization should use optimizer to optimize in session with a feed_dict of the following:
x for image input
y for labels
keep_prob for keep probability for dropout
This function will be called for each batch, so tf.global_variables_initializer() has already been called.
Note: Nothing needs to be returned. This function is only optimizing the neural network.
Show Stats
Implement the function print_stats to print loss and validation accuracy. Use the global variables valid_features and valid_labels to calculate validation accuracy. Use a keep probability of 1.0 to calculate the loss and validation accuracy.
Hyperparameters
Tune the following parameters:
Set epochs to the number of iterations until the network stops learning or start overfitting
Set batch_size to the highest number that your machine has memory for. Most people set them to common sizes of memory:
64
128
256
…
Set keep_probability to the probability of keeping a node using dropout
Train on a Single CIFAR-10 Batch
Instead of training the neural network on all the CIFAR-10 batches of data, let’s use a single batch. This should save time while you iterate on the model to get a better accuracy. Once the final validation accuracy is 50% or greater, run the model on all the data in the next section.
Fully Train the Model
Now that you got a good accuracy with a single CIFAR-10 batch, try it with all five batches.
Checkpoint
The model has been saved to disk.
Test Model
Test your model against the test dataset. This will be your final accuracy. You should have an accuracy greater than 50%. If you don’t, keep tweaking the model architecture and parameters.
Why 50-80% Accuracy?
You might be wondering why you can’t get an accuracy any higher. First things first, 50% isn’t bad for a simple CNN. Pure guessing would get you 10% accuracy. That’s because there are many more techniques that can be applied to your model and we recemmond that once you are done with this project, you explore!