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  2. Building an auto-encoder using Keras

Building an auto-encoder using Keras

This article will demonstrate the process of compressing data and recovering encoded data using machine learning by first building an auto-encoder using Keras, and then recovering the encoded data and visualizing the recovery. We will be using the MNIST handwritten number set which is pre-loaded into the Keras module, about which you can read here .

The code is structured as follows: first, all the utility functions that are needed at different stages of building the autoencoder are defined, and then each function is called accordingly.

Step 1: Import the required libraries

import numpy as np

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

from random import randint

from keras import backend as K

from keras.layers import Input , Dense, Conv2D, MaxPooling2D, UpSampling2D

from keras.models import Model

from keras.datasets import mnist

from keras.callbacks import TensorBoard

Step 2: Define a utility function for loading data

def load_data ():

  # determine the size of the input image

input_image = Input (shape = ( 28 , 28 , 1 ))

 

# Loading data and dividing data into training and test suites

  (X_train, _), (X_test, _) = mnist.load_data ()

  

  # Clean and modify data to fit the model

  X_train = X_train.astype ( `float32 ` ) / 255.

X_train = np .reshape (X_train, ( len (X_train), 28 , 28 , 1 ))

X_test = X_test.astype ( `float32` ) / 255.

X_test = np.reshape (X_test, ( len (X_test), 28 , 28 , 1 ))

 

return X_train, X_test, input_image

Note. When loading data, note that the space into which the training labels are loaded remains empty because no output labels are used during the compression process.

Step 3: Defining a utility function for building the Auto-encoder neural network

def build_network (input_image):

 

# Build the auto-encoder encoder

x = Conv2D ( 16 , ( 3 , 3 ), activation = `relu` , padding = `same` ) (input_image)

  x = MaxPooling2D (( 2 , 2 ), padding = ` same` ) (x)

x = Conv2D ( 8 , ( 3 , 3 ), activation = `relu` , padding = `same` ) (x)

x = MaxPooling2D (( 2 , 2 ), padding = `same` ) (x)

x = Conv2D ( 8 , ( 3 , 3 ), activation = `relu` , padding = `same` ) (x)

encoded_layer = MaxPooling2D (( 2 , 2 ), padding = ` same` ) (x)

 

# Build auto-encoder decoder

x = Conv2D ( 8 , ( 3 , 3 ), activation = `relu` , padding = `same` ) (encoded_layer)

  x = UpSampling2D (( 2 , 2 )) (x)

x = Conv2D ( 8 , ( 3 , 3 ), activation = ` relu` , padding = `same` ) (x)

  x = UpSampling2D (( 2 , 2 )) (x)

x = Conv2D ( 16 , ( 3 , 3 ), activation = `relu` ) (x)

x = UpSampling2D (( 2 , 2 )) (x)

decoded_layer = Conv2D ( 1 , ( 3 , 3 ), activation = `sigmoid` , padding = `same` ) (x)

  

  return decoded_layer

Step 4: Define a utility function to build and train an auto-encoder network

def build_auto_encoder_model (X_train, X_test, input_image, decoded_layer):

 

# Define auto-encoder parameters

autoencoder = Model (input_image, decoded_layer)

autoencoder. compile (optimizer = `adadelta` , loss = `binary_crossentropy` )

  

  # Auto-encoder training

autoencoder.fit (X_train, X_train ,

epochs = 15 ,

batch_size = 256 ,

shuffle = True ,

validation_data = (X_test, X_test),

  callbacks = [TensorBoard (log_dir = `/ tmp / autoencoder` )])

 

return autoencoder

Step 5: Defining a utility function for rendering a reconstruction

def visualize (model, X_test):

  

# Recover encoded images

reconstructed_images = model.predict (X_test)

 

  plt.figure (figsize = ( 20 , 4 ))

for i in range ( 1 , 11 ):

  

# Generate random to get random results

rand_num = randint ( 0 , 10001 )

 

# To display the original image

  ax = plt.subplot ( 2 , 10 , i)

plt.imshow (X_test [rand_num] .reshape ( 28 , 28 ))

plt.gray ()

ax.get_xaxis (). set_visible ( False )

ax.get_yaxis (). set_visible ( False )

 

# To display the restored image

ax = plt.subplot ( 2 , 10 , i + 10 )

  plt.imshow (reconstructed_images [rand_num] .reshape ( 28 , 28 ))

plt.gray ()

  ax.get_xaxis (). set_visible ( False )

ax.get_yaxis (). set_visible ( False )

 

# Display plot

plt.show ()

Step 6: Call the utility functions in the appropriate order

a) Data loading

X_train, X_test, input_image = load_data ()

b) networking

decoded_layer = build_network (input_image)

c) Create and train an auto-encoder

d) Rendering reconstruction

auto_encoder_model = build_auto_encoder_model (X_train,

  X_test,

input_image,

decoded_layer)


visualize (auto_encoder_model, X_test)