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https://github.com/dnouri/noccn

Utilities for Alex Krizhevsky's cuda-convnet
https://github.com/dnouri/noccn

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Utilities for Alex Krizhevsky's cuda-convnet

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README 

        
noccn is a collection of wrappers around Alex Krizhevsky's

`cuda-convnet `_.



What is cuda-convnet?

=====================



According to its website, `cuda-convnet` is "a fast C++/CUDA

implementation of convolutional (or more generally, feed-forward)

neural networks. It can model arbitrary layer connectivity and network

depth. Any directed acyclic graph of layers will do. Training is done

using the back-propagation algorithm."



`cuda-convnet` has really `nice docs on its homepage

`_.



What is noccn for then?

=======================



noccn helps you deal with cuda-convnet's many command-line parameters

by allowing you to put them into a configuration file (usually

`options.cfg`).  noccn also allows you to specify in your

configuration file how you're building your data batches.  This way,

you'll easily remember how exactly you ran your experiments, and how

you got your results.



There is support for turning a list of folders containing images into

batches.  The batch creation code can be extended with your own batch

creator.



noccn is fairly stable -- I use it quite a lot -- but it's still

underdocumented.  A lot of the options will however just map to

cuda-convnet's own.



The options.cfg file

--------------------



Here's an example of an `options.cfg` file::



  #!ini

  [DEFAULT]

  data-provider = convdata.CIFARDataProvider

  include = $HERE/../defaults.cfg



  [train]

  layer-def = $HERE/layers.cfg

  layer-params = $HERE/layer-params.cfg

  data-path = $HERE/../../batches/

  train-range = 1-29

  test-range = 30-40

  save-path = $HERE/tmp

  give-up-epochs = 200



  [show]

  test-range = 41-44



  [predict-test]

  train-range = 1

  test-range = 30-40

  report = 1



  [predict-valid]

  train-range = 1

  test-range = 41-44

  report = 1



  [predict-train]

  train-range = 1

  test-range = 1-8

  report = 1

  # write-preds = $HERE/preds/preds-train.csv

  # write-preds-cols = 1



  [dataset]

  input-path = $HERE/../../images/

  pattern = *.jpg

  output-path = $HERE/../../batches/



The path to this `options.cfg` file is the first argument to every

script in noccn.  `options.cfg` and arguments on the command-line can

be combined, where arguments on the command-line will overrule those

in the config file.



The section ``[train]`` contains all the parameters for training

(`ccn-train`).  Similarly, ``[show]`` has all the parameters for the

`ccn-show` script and so on.  We can define multiple sections for the

`ccn-predict` script.



The section ``[DEFAULT]`` defines variables that are used for all

other sections.  The ``data-provider`` is a dotted path to the data

provider implementation that you want to use.  The default section may

have an ``include`` parameter to include shared parameters from

another file.



Installation in a virtualenv

----------------------------



Use `pip` to install `noccn` in a virtualenv::



  #!shell

  virtualenv noccn --system-site-packages

  cd noccn

  bin/pip install path/to/noccn



If you're on Debian or Ubuntu, you can install the required numpy and

scipy like this::



  #!shell

   apt-get install python-numpy python-scipy



Scripts

-------



A few of the scripts included in noccn wrap those found in

`cuda-convnet` itself.  These are `ccn-train` and `ccn-show`.  Scripts

that noccn itself adds are `ccn-predict` and `ccn-make-batches`.



Some scripts require that you point them to a model snapshot or a

snapshot directory, using the `-f` argument.



ccn-train

~~~~~~~~~



Using `ccn-train` is simple; just pass the path to the `options.cfg`

file as defined above::



  #!shell

  bin/ccn-train models/01/options.cfg



noccn's train script will only save a snapshot if there was an

improvement in the test score.  If you want to store snapshots

regardless of whether or not the test score improved, you can pass

`always-save = 1`.



The `convnet.give_up_epochs` argument defines after how many epochs

without an improvement on the test score should we automatically stop

the learning.  This is useful if you want to run a few parameters

unattended.



ccn-show

~~~~~~~~



During training, you can take a look at the network's performance, at

random test samples and their predictions, and at the activations of

the first layer in your network using the `ccn-show` script::



  #!shell

  bin/ccn-show models/01/options.cfg -f models/01/tmp/ConvNet__*/



If you want to view a different convolutional layer, pass

e.g. `--show-filters=conv2`.



ccn-predict

~~~~~~~~~~~



The `ccn-predict` script prints out a classification report and a

confusion matrix.  This gives you numbers to evaluate your network's

performance::



  #!shell

  bin/ccn-predict models/01/options.cfg -f models/01/tmp/ConvNet__*/



ccn-make-batches

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



The `ccn-make-batches` script is a handy way to create input batches

for use with `cuda-convnet` from a folder with images.  Within the

folder that you point `ccn-make-batches` to (through the

configuration's `[dataset]` section), you should have one folder per

category, with JPEG images belonging to that category inside.  The way

`ccn-make-batches` collects images can be configured through the

`collector` argument (default:

`noccn.dataset._collect_filenames_and_labels`).  The way input files

are converted to data vectors can be overridden by passing in a

different `creator` (default: `noccn.dataset.BatchCreator`).



An example::



  #!shell

  bin/ccn-make-batches models/01/options.cfg