Parallel proportional fusion of a spiking quantum neural network for optimizing image classification

The recent emergence of the hybrid quantum-classical neural network (HQCNN) architecture has garnered considerable attention because of the potential advantages associated with integrating quantum principles to enhance various facets of machine learning algorithms and computations. However, the current investigated serial structure of HQCNN, wherein information sequentially passes from one network to another, often imposes limitations on the trainability and expressivity of the network. In this study, we introduce a novel architecture termed parallel proportional fusion of spiking and quantum neural networks (PPF-SQNN). The dataset information is simultaneously fed into both the spiking neural network and the variational quantum circuits, with the outputs amalgamated in proportion to their individual contributions. We systematically assess the impact of diverse PPF-SQNN parameters on network performance for image classification, aiming to identify the optimal configuration. On three datasets for image classification tasks, the final classification accuracy reached 98.2%, 99.198%, and 97.921%, respectively, with loss values all below 0.2, outperforming the compared serial networks. In noise testing, it also demonstrates good classification performance even under noise intensities of 0.9 Gaussian and uniform noise. This study introduces a novel and effective amalgamation approach for HQCNN, laying the groundwork for the advancement and application of quantum advantages in artificial intelligence computations.