Understanding Transfer Learning for Deep Learning

Transfer learning is a powerful technique used in Deep Learning. By harnessing the ability to reuse existing models and their knowledge of new problems, transfer learning has opened doors to training deep neural networks even with limited data. This breakthrough is especially significant in data science, where practical scenarios often need more labeled data. In this article, we delve into the depths of transfer learning, unraveling its concepts and exploring its applications in empowering data scientists to tackle complex challenges with newfound efficiency and effectiveness.

This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon

What Is Transfer Learning?

The reuse of a pre-trained model on a new problem is known as transfer learning in machine learning. A machine uses the knowledge learned from a prior assignment to increase prediction about a new task in transfer learning. You could, for example, use the information gained during training to distinguish beverages when training a classifier to predict whether an image contains cuisine.

The knowledge of an already trained machine learning model is transferred to a different but closely linked problem throughout transfer learning. For example, if you trained a simple classifier to predict whether an image contains a backpack, you could use the model’s training knowledge to identify other objects such as sunglasses.

With transfer learning, we basically try to use what we’ve learned in one task to better understand the concepts in another. weights are being automatically being shifted to a network performing “task A” from a network that performed new “task B.”

Because of the massive amount of CPU power required, transfer learning is typically applied in computer vision and natural language processing tasks like sentiment analysis.

How Transfer Learning Works?

In computer vision, neural networks typically aim to detect edges in the first layer, forms in the middle layer, and task-specific features in the latter layers.

The early and central layers are employed in transfer learning, and the latter layers are only retrained. It makes use of the labelled data from the task it was trained on.

Let’s return to the example of a model that has been intended to identify a backpack in an image and will now be used to detect sunglasses. Because the model has trained to recognise objects in the earlier levels, we will simply retrain the subsequent layers to understand what distinguishes sunglasses from other objects.

Why Should You Use Transfer Learning?

Transfer learning offers a number of advantages, the most important of which are reduced training time, improved neural network performance (in most circumstances), and the absence of a large amount of data.

To train a neural model from scratch, a lot of data is typically needed, but access to that data isn’t always possible – this is when transfer learning comes in handy.

Because the model has already been pre-trained, a good machine learning model can be generated with fairly little training data using transfer learning. This is especially useful in natural language processing, where huge labelled datasets require a lot of expert knowledge. Additionally, training time is decreased because building a deep neural network from the start of a complex task can take days or even weeks.

Steps to Use Transfer Learning

Models That Have Been Pre-Trained

There are a number of popular pre-trained machine learning models available. The Inception-v3 model, which was developed for the ImageNet “Large Visual Recognition Challenge,” is one of them.” Participants in this challenge had to categorize pictures into 1,000 subcategories such as “zebra,” “Dalmatian,” and “dishwasher.”

Code Implementation of Transfer Learning with Python

Importing Libraries

import tensorflow as tf
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from tensorflow.keras import Model 
from tensorflow.keras.layers import Conv2D, Dense, MaxPooling2D, Dropout, Flatten,GlobalAveragePooling2D
from tensorflow.keras.models import Sequential
from tensorflow.keras.preprocessing.image import ImageDataGenerator
from tensorflow.keras.callbacks import ReduceLROnPlateau
from tensorflow.keras.layers import Input, Lambda, Dense, Flatten
from tensorflow.keras.models import Model
from tensorflow.keras.applications.inception_v3 import InceptionV3
from tensorflow.keras.applications.inception_v3 import preprocess_input
from tensorflow.keras.preprocessing import image
from tensorflow.keras.preprocessing.image import ImageDataGenerator,load_img
from tensorflow.keras.models import Sequential
import numpy as np
from glob import glob

Uploading Data via Kaggle API

from google.colab import files
files.upload()

Saving kaggle.json to kaggle.json

!mkdir -p ~/.kaggle
!cp kaggle.json ~/.kaggle/

!chmod 600 ~/.kaggle/kaggle.json

!kaggle datasets download -d mohamedhanyyy/chest-ctscan-images #downloading data from kaggle API of Dataset

from zipfile import ZipFile
file_name = "chest-ctscan-images.zip"

with ZipFile(file_name,'r') as zip:
  zip.extractall()
  print('Done')

Designing Our CNN Model with help of Pre–Trained Model

InceptionV3_model = tf.keras.applications.InceptionV3(weights='imagenet', include_top=False, input_shape=(224, 224, 3))

from tensorflow.keras import Model 
from tensorflow.keras.layers import Conv2D, Dense, MaxPooling2D, Dropout, Flatten,GlobalAveragePooling2D
from tensorflow.keras.models import Sequential

# The last 15 layers fine tune
for layer in InceptionV3_model.layers[:-15]:
    layer.trainable = False

x = InceptionV3_model.output
x = GlobalAveragePooling2D()(x)
x = Flatten()(x)
x = Dense(units=512, activation='relu')(x)
x = Dropout(0.3)(x)
x = Dense(units=512, activation='relu')(x)
x = Dropout(0.3)(x)
output  = Dense(units=4, activation='softmax')(x)
model = Model(InceptionV3_model.input, output)


model.summary()

Image Augmentation( For preventing the issue of Overfitting)

# Use the Image Data Generator to import the images from the dataset
from tensorflow.keras.preprocessing.image import ImageDataGenerator

train_datagen = ImageDataGenerator(rescale = 1./255,
                                   shear_range = 0.2,
                                   zoom_range = 0.2,
                                   horizontal_flip = True)

test_datagen = ImageDataGenerator(rescale = 1./255)
#no flip and zoom for test datase

# Make sure you provide the same target size as initialied for the image size
training_set = train_datagen.flow_from_directory('/content/Data/train',
                                                 target_size = (224, 224),
                                                 batch_size = 32,
                                                 class_mode = 'categorical')

Training Our Model

# fit the model
# Run the cell. It will take some time to execute
r = model.fit_generator(
  training_set,
  validation_data=test_set,
  epochs=8,
  steps_per_epoch=len(training_set),
  validation_steps=len(test_set)
)

# plot the loss
plt.plot(r.history['loss'], label='train loss')
plt.plot(r.history['val_loss'], label='val loss')
plt.legend()
plt.show()
plt.savefig('LossVal_loss')

# plot the accuracy
plt.plot(r.history['accuracy'], label='train acc')
plt.plot(r.history['val_accuracy'], label='val acc')
plt.legend()
plt.show()
plt.savefig('AccVal_acc')

Making Predictions

import numpy as np
y_pred = np.argmax(y_pred, axis=1)
y_pred

The above code is being executed, and respective output for classification using Transfer Learning is being shown below the embedded notebook:

 

 

 

You can access the Github link for Google Colab notebook here!

Conclusion

In conclusion, understanding transfer learning is crucial for data scientists venturing into deep learning. It equips them to leverage pre-trained models and extract valuable knowledge from existing data, enabling them to solve complex problems with limited resources. Consider exploring our Blackbelt program to further enhance your expertise in transfer learning and propel your data science journey. With its comprehensive curriculum and practical hands-on approach, the program offers a unique opportunity to master transfer learning and unlock the full potential of deep learning in your data science endeavors.

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