# Enhanced Image Classification With a Fast-Learning Shallow Convolutional Neural Network

Source: [Enhanced Image Classification With a Fast-Learning Shallow Convolutional Neural Network](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/68fa62141e209131ce9f7622>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2026-01-04T02:50:39.484Z

Authors: Mark D. McDonnell, Tony Vladusich

Published: 2015-03-16T10:41:30.000Z

## Abstract

We present a neural network architecture and training method designed to enable very rapid training and low implementation complexity. Due to its training speed and very few tunable parameters, the method has strong potential for applications requiring frequent retraining or online training. The approach is characterized by (a) convolutional filters based on biologically inspired visual processing filters, (b) randomly-valued classifier-stage input weights, (c) use of least squares regression to train the classifier output weights in a single batch, and (d) linear classifier-stage output units. We demonstrate the efficacy of the method by applying it to image classification. Our results match existing state-of-the-art results on the MNIST (0.37% error) and NORB-small (2.2% error) image classification databases, but with very fast training times compared to standard deep network approaches. The network's performance on the Google Street View House Number (SVHN) (4% error) database is also competitive with state-of-the art methods.

## Recorded benchmark results

A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage.

- [Image Classification on NORB small (test)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/image-classification-on-norb-small-test.md>): Image Classification; NORB small (test); Error Rate: 2.21.

- [Classification on SVHN (test)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/classification-on-svhn-test.md>): Classification; SVHN (test); Error Rate: 3.96.

- [Image Classification on CIFAR-10 (test) (Accuracy)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/image-classification-on-cifar-10-test-accuracy.md>): Image Classification; CIFAR-10 (test); Accuracy: 75.9.

- [Image Classification on CIFAR-10 (test)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/image-classification-on-cifar-10-test.md>): Image Classification; CIFAR-10 (test); Accuracy: not recorded.

- [Image Classification on MNIST (test)](<https://www.sota2.com/research/sota/image-classification-on-mnist-test.md>): Image Classification; MNIST (test); Accuracy: not recorded.

## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/1503.04596>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.04596.pdf>)

[Implementation](<http://cilvr.nyu.edu/doku.php?id=software:overfeat:start>)