Handwritten Digits Recognition (MNIST)

Eman Abbas 320210042

Abstract
Brief description about the problem and the finding results (500 word).
This study explores the effectiveness of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) in
classifying handwritten digits from the MNIST dataset. Handwritten digit
recognition (HDR) is a fundamental computer vision challenge due to variations in
writing styles. We investigate how well a CNN can learn these variations and
achieve high accuracy. The methodology involves acquiring and preprocessing the
MNIST data (70,000 training and 10,000 testing images), constructing and training
a CNN model, and evaluating its performance using accuracy and confusion matrix.
We expect the CNN to achieve over 97% accuracy, demonstrating its ability to
extract relevant features for digit recognition. The study will also explore the
impact of varying the CNN architecture and potentially visualize the learned filters
to gain insights into the model's decision-making process. This project contributes
to the field of HDR by showcasing the power of CNNs in achieving high accuracy
on the MNIST benchmark, paving the way for exploring their application in more
complex computer vision tasks.

Introduction
Define the main problem of this project.
The ability to accurately recognize handwritten digits is a fundamental challenge
in computer vision. Humans can effortlessly distinguish these symbols, but
replicating this capability in machines is complex due to variations in writing styles,
sizes, orientations, and potential noise in images. This project tackles the task of
classifying handwritten digits from 0 to 9 with high accuracy.

Brief description about the techniques used.

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 This project utilizes different deep learning architectures( Naive Bayesian,Feed
forward Neural Networ,Feed Back neural Networ,Decision Tree, RBF, K-NN with
(Different distances)) for image classification. That excel at extracting relevant
features from images, making them ideal for tasks like handwritten digit
recognition.compare between them to detect which approach is better.

The main contribution you added to this project.

This project focuses on achieving high accuracy in classifying handwritten digits

from the MNIST dataset using a well-designed CNN architecture , Naive
Bayesian,Feed forward Neural Networ,Feed Back neural Networ,Decision Tree, RBF,
K-NN with (Different distances)) .

The main contribution lies in:

Exploration and Optimization: Experimenting with different architectures

(number of layers, neurons, etc.) to find the optimal configuration for this specific
task.

Analysis and Interpretation: Investigating and visualizing the features learned by

the CNN to gain insights into how it recognizes digits.

Organization of the reset of the project.

The remainder of the project is structured as follows:

Related Work: This section will discuss existing research on handwritten digit
recognition, focusing on NN approaches and their achieved accuracy.

Methodology: This section will detail the specific steps involved in the
project, including data acquisition, preprocessing, different architecture
design, training process, and evaluation metrics.

Results and Discussion: This section will present the achieved accuracy, analyze the
impact of different CNN configurations, and potentially visualize the learned features.

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Conclusion: This section will summarize the findings, highlight the effectiveness of the
chosen approach, and discuss potential future directions for improvement.

Related Work
Reference Year Methods Results (Accuracy)

LeCun et al. 1998 Convolutional 95.4%

(1998) Neural Networks
(CNNs)

Simard et al. 2003 Support Vector 97.50%

(2003) Machines (SVMs)
with RBF kernel

Hinton and 2006 Deep Belief 95.8%

Salakhutdinov Networks (DBNs)
(2006)

Rifai et al. 2011 Convolutional 97.90%

(2011) Restricted
Boltzmann Machines
(CRBM)

Coates et al. 2011 AlexNet (early 96.64%

(2011) deep CNN
architecture)

Krizhevsky et al. 2012 AlexNet (further 95.8% (Top-1

(2012) refined) error)

He et al. (2016) 2016 Residual Neural 97.40%

Networks (ResNets)

Huang et al. 2017 Dense 99.30%

(2017) Convolutional

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pen_spark Networks
(DenseNets)

pen_spark

Chollet (2017) 2017 Xception (CNN 97.52%

architecture with
depthwise
separable
convolutions)

Yang et al. (2019) 2019 MixConv: Combining 97.80%

Depthwise and
Pointwise
Convolutions

Methodology
1. Naive Bayes (NB):

 Concept: Classifies data points based on Bayes' theorem and assuming conditional
independence between features. It's efficient for large datasets and works well with categorical
features.
 MNIST Suitability: Can be effective for MNIST due to its discrete pixel values. However, it might
not capture complex relationships between features as well as other methods.

2. Feedforward Neural Network (FNN):

 Concept: A layered artificial neural network where information flows in one direction, from input
to output layers. Each layer learns a transformation of the data.
 MNIST Suitability: Highly effective for MNIST. FNNs excel at learning complex patterns in image
data, achieving high accuracy on this dataset.

3. Feedback Neural Network (FBNN):

 Concept: Similar to FNNs but with connections allowing information to flow in both directions.
This enables the network to exploit past outputs for learning, potentially leading to more
complex decision-making.

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  MNIST Suitability: While FBNNs can theoretically handle complex tasks, training them can be
more challenging compared to FNNs for MNIST. FNNs often achieve excellent results without the
added complexity of feedback connections.

4. Decision Tree (DT):

 Concept: A tree-like structure where data points are classified by a series of yes/no questions
based on feature values. The path through the tree leads to a final classification decision.
 MNIST Suitability: Can be effective for MNIST, especially for interpreting feature importance
through the tree structure. However, DTs might not capture the spatial relationships between
pixels in digit images as well as FNNs.

5. RBF Kernel (for Support Vector Machines - SVMs):

 Concept: Not a standalone method, but a kernel function used in SVMs. It transforms data into a
higher-dimensional space where linear separation between classes might be possible.
 MNIST Suitability: SVMs with RBF kernels achieve high accuracy on MNIST. However, they can be
more computationally expensive to train compared to some other methods.

6. K-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN) with Different Distances:

 Concept: Classifies a data point based on the majority vote of its k nearest neighbors in the
training data. Different distance metrics (e.g., Euclidean, Manhattan) can be used to calculate
neighbor proximity.
 MNIST Suitability: K-NN is a simple and interpretable method. It can work well for MNIST,
especially with appropriate distance metrics chosen through techniques like GridSearchCV (used
in the provided code).

Choosing the Right Method:

The best method for MNIST depends on factors like desired accuracy, computational resources,
and interpretability needs. FNN and FBNN are generally the most accurate for MNIST, while
methods like NB and DT offer simpler models with easier interpretation. K-NN provides a good
balance between accuracy and interpretability. The provided code demonstrates using
GridSearchCV with K-NN and different distance metrics to optimize performance.

Proposed Model
1. Data Preprocessing

 Methods:
o Data Cleaning:
 Handle missing values (e.g., imputation, deletion)

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  Identify and address outliers (e.g., capping, winsorization)
 Correct inconsistencies (e.g., typos, formatting errors)
o Data Transformation:

 Feature scaling (e.g., normalization, standardization) if necessary for distance-

based algorithms (K-NN)
 Encoding categorical variables (e.g., one-hot encoding, label encoding)

2. Feature Selection (Optional)

 Methods:
o Filter methods (e.g., chi-squared test, information gain) to identify statistically relevant
features
o Wrapper methods (e.g., forward selection, backward selection) to evaluate feature
subsets based on model performance
o Embedded methods (e.g., L1 regularization) during model training for simultaneous
feature selection and reduction

3. Feature Reduction (Optional)

 Methods:
o Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to capture the most variance in the data with fewer
features
o Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) for dimensionality reduction specifically for
classification tasks

4. Classification/Regression

 Methods Implemented ():

o Naive Bayes: Probabilistic classifier based on Bayes' theorem, efficient for large datasets
o Feedforward Neural Network (FBNN): Multi-layered network with hidden layers for
learning complex relationships (Best Model )
o Decision Tree: Rule-based classifier that partitions data based on features, interpretable
but prone to overfitting
o RBF (Radial Basis Function) Network: Variant of FBNN using radial basis activation
functions
o K-Nearest Neighbors (K-NN): Classifies data points based on the majority vote of their K
nearest neighbors, can be sensitive to high dimensionality

5. Evaluation Metrics for MNIST Classification

 Accuracy: Proportion of correctly classified digits (0-9)

 Precision: Ratio of correctly classified digits in a particular class to all predictions of that class.
For example, precision for digit "3" would be the number of true "3"s divided by the total
number of predictions labeled "3" (including false positives).

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  Recall: Ratio of correctly classified digits in a particular class to all actual instances of that class in
the dataset. Recall for digit "3" would be the number of true "3"s divided by the total number of
actual "3"s in the test set (including false negatives).
 F1-score: Harmonic mean of precision and recall, balancing both.
 Confusion Matrix: Visualizes model performance for each digit class. It shows the number of
correctly classified digits and the number of misclassified digits for each class.

Deep Dive into FBNN for MNIST Classification:Feed Back Neural Network (FBNN) architecture
implemented using TensorFlow's Keras API for classifying handwritten digits in the MNIST dataset.

Building the FBNN Model:

 inputs = layers.Input(shape=(28, 28, 1)): Defines the input layer of the network,
specifying the shape of the input images as 28x28 pixels with one color channel.
 x = layers.Conv2D(32, (3, 3), activation='relu')(inputs): Creates the first
convolutional layer with:
o 32: Number of filters (feature detectors) in this layer.
o Kernel size of (3, 3), meaning each filter scans a 3x3 window of the input.
o activation='relu': Applies the ReLU (Rectified Linear Unit) activation function for
introducing non-linearity.
 x = layers.MaxPooling2D((2, 2))(x): Applies a max pooling layer with a pool size of
2x2 to downsample the feature maps, reducing spatial dimensions while capturing the most
significant activations.
 We repeat the process of convolutional and max pooling layers with different filter counts (64 for
the second convolutional layer) to extract increasingly complex features from the images.
 x = layers.Flatten()(x): Flattens the output of the last convolutional layer from a 4D
tensor to a 1D vector suitable for feeding into dense layers.
 x = layers.Dense(128, activation='relu')(x): Introduces a dense (fully connected)
layer with 128 neurons and ReLU activation. This layer helps learn higher-level relationships
between the extracted features.
 outputs = layers.Dense(10, activation='softmax')(x): Defines the output layer
with:

o 10: Corresponds to the 10 digit classes (0-9) in the MNIST dataset.

o activation='softmax': Applies the softmax activation to ensure the output
probabilities sum to 1 and represent the class membership probabilities.

 model = Model(inputs=inputs, outputs=outputs): Constructs the overall FBNN model

by specifying the input and output layers.

2. Model Compilation:

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  model.compile(loss='sparse_categorical_crossentropy',
optimizer=tf.keras.optimizers.Adam(learning_rate=0.001),
metrics=['accuracy']): Configures the training process.

o loss='sparse_categorical_crossentropy': Defines the loss function (metric to

minimize) suitable for multi-class classification problems.
o optimizer=tf.keras.optimizers.Adam(learning_rate=0.001): Selects the
Adam optimizer for adjusting model weights during training. The learning rate of 0.001
controls how much the weights are updated in each step.
o metrics=['accuracy']: Specifies the accuracy metric to track model performance
during training and evaluation.

Model Image :

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Results and discussion
Data Sets Description:

The MNIST (Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology) dataset is a widely used
benchmark for evaluating image classification algorithms, particularly in the domain of
handwritten digit recognition (HDR). Here's a detailed description of the dataset:

 Consists of 70,000 grayscale images of handwritten digits (0-9).

 Divided into two subsets:

 Training set: 60,000 images used for training machine learning models.
 Testing set: 10,000 images used for evaluating model performance on unseen data.

Preprocessing Results

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Confusion matrix:

Encoding of labels using One-Hot Encoding:

Data Analysis:Since MNIST images are essentially 2D

arrays representing pixel intensities, we can't directly
calculate descriptive statistics like mean, standard deviation,
etc., for the entire image. However, we can analyze these
statistics for the pixel intensities themselves:

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Feature Reduction results:
Feature reduction only PCA: Original image shape: (28, 28) Reduced feature space dimension: 154
Feature reduction PCA with filter: Number of features after PCA: 11
It appears that using a combination of feature selection (filter) before feature reduction(PCA)produced
the best features.

Classification Results with different approaches:

Evaluation metrics results

Bayes :
FNN:

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*KNN model with wrapper *

model overfitten or underfirren.

KNN model suffering from overfitten as the following was calculated
Best Accuracy: 0.9430178571428571
Test Accuracy: 0.08978571428571429

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Conclusion and future work
This analysis compared the performance of six algorithms (Naive Bayes, Feedforward Neural
Network, Backpropagation Neural Network, Decision Tree, RBF kernel SVM, and K-Nearest
Neighbors) for a classification task using K-fold cross-validation and accuracy as the evaluation
metric.

Key Findings:

 The algorithms achieved varying average accuracy levels, with (FNN & FBNN) performing the
best and (KNN & Naive Baseyian) showing the lowest accuracy.
 By analyzing the confusion matrices for each fold and algorithm, we can identify potential class
imbalances, model biases, and areas for improvement.

Overfitting/Underfitting Evaluation:

 If a significant difference exists between the training and testing accuracy within a fold for a
particular algorithm, it could indicate overfitting. Techniques like hyperparameter tuning,
regularization, or using a more complex model architecture might be necessary.
 Conversely, consistently low accuracy across all folds for an algorithm suggests underfitting. This
could be addressed by trying a more flexible model architecture, increasing model complexity, or
collecting more training data.

Future Work
Here are some potential directions for future work:

1. Hyperparameter Tuning: We can use techniques like GridSearchCV or RandomizedSearchCV to

find optimal hyperparameter configurations for each algorithm, potentially improving
performance.
2. Feature Engineering: Exploring and creating new features from the existing data can enhance
the model's ability to learn complex relationships.
3. Ensemble Methods: Combining predictions from multiple models using techniques like bagging
or boosting might lead to better overall accuracy and robustness.
4. Deep Learning: For complex problems, exploring deeper neural network architectures like
Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) or Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) could be beneficial.
5. Different Datasets: Applying these algorithms and techniques to other datasets can provide
broader insights into their effectiveness for various classification tasks.

By implementing these future work directions, we can potentially achieve better results and gain
a deeper understanding of the strengths and limitations of each algorithm for different
classification problems.

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