ProtoSolo: Interpretable Image Classification via Single-Prototype Activation

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Peng, Yitao, He, Lianghua, Chen, Hongzhou
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Peng, Yitao
He, Lianghua
Chen, Hongzhou
author_facet Peng, Yitao
He, Lianghua
Chen, Hongzhou
contents Although interpretable prototype networks have improved the transparency of deep learning image classification, the need for multiple prototypes in collaborative decision-making increases cognitive complexity and hinders user understanding. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a novel interpretable deep architecture for image classification, called ProtoSolo. Unlike existing prototypical networks, ProtoSolo requires activation of only a single prototype to complete the classification. This design significantly simplifies interpretation, as the explanation for each class requires displaying only the prototype with the highest similarity score and its corresponding feature map. Additionally, the traditional full-channel feature vector is replaced with a feature map for similarity comparison and prototype learning, enabling the use of richer global information within a single-prototype activation decision. A non-projection prototype learning strategy is also introduced to preserve the association between the prototype and image patch while avoiding abrupt structural changes in the network caused by projection, which can affect classification performance. Experiments on the CUB-200-2011 and Stanford Cars datasets demonstrate that ProtoSolo matches state-of-the-art interpretable methods in classification accuracy while achieving the lowest cognitive complexity. The code is available at https://github.com/pyt19/ProtoSolo.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_19808
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle ProtoSolo: Interpretable Image Classification via Single-Prototype Activation
Peng, Yitao
He, Lianghua
Chen, Hongzhou
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Although interpretable prototype networks have improved the transparency of deep learning image classification, the need for multiple prototypes in collaborative decision-making increases cognitive complexity and hinders user understanding. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a novel interpretable deep architecture for image classification, called ProtoSolo. Unlike existing prototypical networks, ProtoSolo requires activation of only a single prototype to complete the classification. This design significantly simplifies interpretation, as the explanation for each class requires displaying only the prototype with the highest similarity score and its corresponding feature map. Additionally, the traditional full-channel feature vector is replaced with a feature map for similarity comparison and prototype learning, enabling the use of richer global information within a single-prototype activation decision. A non-projection prototype learning strategy is also introduced to preserve the association between the prototype and image patch while avoiding abrupt structural changes in the network caused by projection, which can affect classification performance. Experiments on the CUB-200-2011 and Stanford Cars datasets demonstrate that ProtoSolo matches state-of-the-art interpretable methods in classification accuracy while achieving the lowest cognitive complexity. The code is available at https://github.com/pyt19/ProtoSolo.
title ProtoSolo: Interpretable Image Classification via Single-Prototype Activation
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.19808