Investigating and Explaining the Frequency Bias in Image Classification

Investigating and Explaining the Frequency Bias in Image Classification

Zhiyu Lin, Yifei Gao, Jitao Sang

Proceedings of the Thirty-First International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Main Track. Pages 717-723. https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2022/101

CNNs exhibit many behaviors different from humans, one of which is the capability of employing high-frequency components. This paper discusses the frequency bias phenomenon in image classification tasks: the high-frequency components are actually much less exploited than the low- and mid- frequency components. We first investigate the frequency bias phenomenon by presenting two observations on feature discrimination and learning priority. Furthermore, we hypothesize that (1) the spectral density, (2) class consistency directly affect the frequency bias. Specifically, our investigations verify that the spectral density of datasets mainly affects the learning priority, while the class consistency mainly affects the feature discrimination.
Keywords:
AI Ethics, Trust, Fairness: Trustworthy AI
AI Ethics, Trust, Fairness: Bias
AI Ethics, Trust, Fairness: Explainability and Interpretability
AI Ethics, Trust, Fairness: Safety & Robustness
Computer Vision: Bias, Fairness & Privacy