PairTraining: A method for training Convolutional Neural Networks with image pairs

In the field of image classification, the Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are effective. Most of the work focuses on improving and innovating CNN’s network structure. However, using labeled data more effectively for training has also been an essential part of CNN’s research. Combining image disturbance and consistency regularization theory, this paper proposes a model training method (PairTraining) that takes image pairs as input and dynamically modify the training difficulty according to the accuracy of the model in the training set. According to the accuracy of the model in the training set, the training process will be divided into three stages: the qualitative stage, the fine learning stage and the strengthening learning stage. Contrastive learning images are formed using a progressively enhanced image disturbance strategy at different training stages. The input image and contrast learning image are combined into image pairs for model training. The experiments are tested on four public datasets using eleven CNN models. These models have different degrees of improvement in accuracy on the four datasets. PairTraining can adapt to a variety of CNN models for image classification training. This method can better improve the effectiveness of training and improve the degree of generalization of classification models after training. The classification model obtained by PairTraining has better performance in practical application.