Transfer Learning in Computer Vision

Duration: 7 min

This module delves into the concept of transfer learning in computer vision, exploring how pre-trained models can be adapted to new tasks. Transfer learning is crucial for leveraging existing knowledge to solve new problems efficiently, reducing the need for extensive training data and computational resources.

Understanding Transfer Learning

Transfer learning involves taking a pre-trained model, typically trained on a large dataset like ImageNet, and fine-tuning it for a specific task. This approach allows us to benefit from the learned features and patterns in the pre-trained model, which can significantly accelerate the training process and improve performance on the new task.

import torch
import torchvision.models as models

# Load a pre-trained ResNet model
model = models.resnet50(pretrained=True)

# Freeze the parameters of the pre-trained model
for param in model.parameters():
    param.requires_grad = False

# Modify the final fully connected layer for our specific task
num_features = model.fc.in_features
model.fc = torch.nn.Linear(num_features, 10)  # Assuming 10 classes

# Print the modified model
print(model)

Try it in Google Colab:

ResNet(
  (conv1): Conv2d(3, 64, kernel_size=(7, 7), stride=(2, 2), padding=(3, 3), bias=False)
  (bn1): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
  (relu): ReLU(inplace=True)
  (maxpool): MaxPool2d(kernel_size=3, stride=2, padding=1, dilation=1, ceil_mode=False)
  (layer1): Sequential(
    (0): BasicBlock(
      (conv1): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (relu): ReLU(inplace=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
    )
    (1): BasicBlock(
      (conv1): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (relu): ReLU(inplace=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
    )
  )
  (layer2): Sequential(
    (0): Bottleneck(
      (conv1): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(2, 2), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv3): Conv2d(64, 256, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn3): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (downsample): Sequential(
        (0): Conv2d(64, 256, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(2, 2), bias=False)
        (1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      )
    )
    (1): Bottleneck(
      (conv1): Conv2d(256, 64, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv3): Conv2d(64, 256, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn3): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
    )
    (2): Bottleneck(
      (conv1): Conv2d(256, 64, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(64, 64, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(64, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv3): Conv2d(64, 256, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn3): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
    )
  )
  (layer3): Sequential(
    (0): Bottleneck(
      (conv1): Conv2d(256, 128, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(2, 2), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv3): Conv2d(128, 512, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn3): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (downsample): Sequential(
        (0): Conv2d(256, 512, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(2, 2), bias=False)
        (1): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      )
    )
    (1): Bottleneck(
      (conv1): Conv2d(512, 128, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv3): Conv2d(128, 512, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn3): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
    )
    (2): Bottleneck(
      (conv1): Conv2d(512, 128, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv3): Conv2d(128, 512, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn3): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
    )
    (3): Bottleneck(
      (conv1): Conv2d(512, 128, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(128, 128, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(128, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv3): Conv2d(128, 512, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn3): BatchNorm2d(512, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
    )
  )
  (layer4): Sequential(
    (0): Bottleneck(
      (conv1): Conv2d(512, 256, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(2, 2), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv3): Conv2d(256, 1024, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn3): BatchNorm2d(1024, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (downsample): Sequential(
        (0): Conv2d(512, 1024, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(2, 2), bias=False)
        (1): BatchNorm2d(1024, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      )
    )
    (1): Bottleneck(
      (conv1): Conv2d(1024, 256, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv3): Conv2d(256, 1024, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn3): BatchNorm2d(1024, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
    )
    (2): Bottleneck(
      (conv1): Conv2d(1024, 256, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn1): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv2): Conv2d(256, 256, kernel_size=(3, 3), stride=(1, 1), padding=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn2): BatchNorm2d(256, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
      (conv3): Conv2d(256, 1024, kernel_size=(1, 1), stride=(1, 1), bias=False)
      (bn3): BatchNorm2d(1024, eps=1e-05, momentum=0.1, affine=True, track_running_stats=True)
    )
  )
  (avgpool): AdaptiveAvgPool2d(output_size=(1, 1))
  (fc): Linear(in_features=2048, out_features=10, bias=True)
)

Fine-Tuning the Model

Fine-tuning involves training the modified model on a new dataset. During fine-tuning, only the parameters of the newly added layers (or the unfrozen layers) are updated, while the rest of the model remains fixed. This process allows the model to adapt to the specific features of the new dataset while retaining the general knowledge learned from the pre-trained model.

import torch
import torch.optim as optim

# Assuming 'model' is already defined and modified as in example1.py

# Define a loss function and optimizer
criterion = torch.nn.CrossEntropyLoss()
optimizer = optim.SGD(model.fc.parameters(), lr=0.001, momentum=0.9)

# Training loop (simplified)
for epoch in range(5):  # loop over the dataset multiple times
    running_loss = 0.0
    for inputs, labels in dataloader:  # Assuming 'dataloader' is defined
        optimizer.zero_grad()
        outputs = model(inputs)
        loss = criterion(outputs, labels)
        loss.backward()
        optimizer.step()
        running_loss += loss.item()
    print(f'Epoch {epoch+1}, Loss: {running_loss/len(dataloader)}')  # Print loss for each epoch
print('Finished Training')

💡 Tip: When fine-tuning, it's important to use a lower learning rate to avoid overwriting the pre-trained weights too quickly. Additionally, monitor the validation loss to prevent overfitting.