ChannelExplorer: Exploring Class Separability Through Activation Channel Visualization

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zaman, Md Rahat-uz-, Wang, Bei, Rosen, Paul
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912365982777344
author Zaman, Md Rahat-uz-
Wang, Bei
Rosen, Paul
author_facet Zaman, Md Rahat-uz-
Wang, Bei
Rosen, Paul
contents Deep neural networks (DNNs) achieve state-of-the-art performance in many vision tasks, yet understanding their internal behavior remains challenging, particularly how different layers and activation channels contribute to class separability. We introduce ChannelExplorer, an interactive visual analytics tool for analyzing image-based outputs across model layers, emphasizing data-driven insights over architecture analysis for exploring class separability. ChannelExplorer summarizes activations across layers and visualizes them using three primary coordinated views: a Scatterplot View to reveal inter- and intra-class confusion, a Jaccard Similarity View to quantify activation overlap, and a Heatmap View to inspect activation channel patterns. Our technique supports diverse model architectures, including CNNs, GANs, ResNet and Stable Diffusion models. We demonstrate the capabilities of ChannelExplorer through four use-case scenarios: (1) generating class hierarchy in ImageNet, (2) finding mislabeled images, (3) identifying activation channel contributions, and(4) locating latent states' position in Stable Diffusion model. Finally, we evaluate the tool with expert users.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_04647
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ChannelExplorer: Exploring Class Separability Through Activation Channel Visualization
Zaman, Md Rahat-uz-
Wang, Bei
Rosen, Paul
Graphics
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
Deep neural networks (DNNs) achieve state-of-the-art performance in many vision tasks, yet understanding their internal behavior remains challenging, particularly how different layers and activation channels contribute to class separability. We introduce ChannelExplorer, an interactive visual analytics tool for analyzing image-based outputs across model layers, emphasizing data-driven insights over architecture analysis for exploring class separability. ChannelExplorer summarizes activations across layers and visualizes them using three primary coordinated views: a Scatterplot View to reveal inter- and intra-class confusion, a Jaccard Similarity View to quantify activation overlap, and a Heatmap View to inspect activation channel patterns. Our technique supports diverse model architectures, including CNNs, GANs, ResNet and Stable Diffusion models. We demonstrate the capabilities of ChannelExplorer through four use-case scenarios: (1) generating class hierarchy in ImageNet, (2) finding mislabeled images, (3) identifying activation channel contributions, and(4) locating latent states' position in Stable Diffusion model. Finally, we evaluate the tool with expert users.
title ChannelExplorer: Exploring Class Separability Through Activation Channel Visualization
topic Graphics
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.04647