An Evolution of CNN Object Classifiers on Low-Resolution Images

Abstract

Object classification is a significant task in computer vision. It has become an effective research area as an important aspect of image processing and the building block of image localization, detection, and scene parsing. Object classification from low-quality images is difficult for the variance of object colors, aspect ratios, and cluttered backgrounds. The field of object classification has seen remarkable advancements, with the development of deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs). Deep neural networks have been demonstrated as very powerful systems for facing the challenge of object classification from high-resolution images, but deploying such object classification networks on the embedded device remains challenging due to the high computational and memory requirements. Using high-quality images often causes high computational and memory complexity, whereas low-quality images can solve this issue. Hence, in this paper, we investigate an optimal architecture that accurately classifies low-quality images using DCNNs architectures. To validate different baselines on low-quality images, we perform experiments using webcam captured image datasets of 10 different objects. In this research work, we evaluate the proposed architecture by implementing popular CNN architectures. The experimental results validate that the MobileNet architecture delivers better than most of the available CNN architectures for low-resolution webcam image datasets.