Convolutional Neural Networks, Matrix of Convolutional (Kernel)

Question

Good afternoon! In the first stage where on input of Convolutional Neural Network (input layer) we recieve a source image (hence an image of handwritten English letter). First of all we are using an nxn window which goes from left to right for scanning image and multiplication on kernel (convolutional matrix) to build Feature maps? But nowhere written about what exact values a kernel should be have (In other words on what Kernel values I should multiply data retrieved from n*n window ). Is it suitable to multiply data on this Convolutional Kernel intended for edge detection? There a numerous Convolutional Kernels (Emboss, Gaussian Filter, Edge detection, Angle detection, etc.)? But nowhere is written to what exact kernel it is need to multiply data for detecting hand written symbols.

Sample of Edge detection 3*3 kernel

Convolutional operation for multiplication on kernel

In addition, if size of entire image is 30*30, than is it possible to use window of 5*5 for building feature maps? Would it be enough sufficient for reaching optimal precision of letter detection?

On what exact kernel it is best to multiply area of entire image for the maximum precision of letter recognition? Or initially all values in kernel is equaled to 0? Could i also ask, what formula or rule is applied to detect overall needed amount of to be built feature maps? Or if the task is in letter recognition of English Language, than in each stage of Feature maps building process there must be exact 25 feature maps? Thank you for reply!

Answer 1

In a CNN, the convolutional kernel is a shared weight matrix, and is learned in a similar way to other weights. It is initialized in the same way, with small random values, and the weight deltas from back propagation are summed across all the features that receive its output (i.e. usually all "pixels" in the output of the convolutional layer)

A typical random kernel will perform a little like an edge detector.

After training, the first CNN layer can be displayed and will often have learned some kernels that can be interpreted if you are familiar with image processing

There is a nice animated view of kernel features being learned here: http://cs.nyu.edu/~yann/research/sparse/

In short your answer is this: There is no need to look for correct kernels to use. Instead look for a CNN library where you set params such as number of convolutional layers, and research the way to view the kernels as they learn - most CNN libraries will have a documented way to visualise them.