Papers › From CNNs to Shift-Invariant Twin Models Based on Complex Wavelets
From CNNs to Shift-Invariant Twin Models Based on Complex Wavelets
Hubert Leterme, Kévin Polisano, Valérie Perrier, Karteek Alahari
We propose a novel method to increase shift invariance and prediction accuracy in convolutional neural networks. Specifically, we replace the first-layer combination "real-valued convolutions + max pooling" (RMax) by "complex-valued convolutions + modulus" (CMod), which is stable to translations, or shifts. To justify our approach, we claim that CMod and RMax produce comparable outputs when the convolution kernel is band-pass and oriented (Gabor-like filter). In this context, CMod can therefore be considered as a stable alternative to RMax. To enforce this property, we constrain the convolution kernels to adopt such a Gabor-like structure. The corresponding architecture is called mathematical twin, because it employs a well-defined mathematical operator to mimic the behavior of the original, freely-trained model. Our approach achieves superior accuracy on ImageNet and CIFAR-10 classification tasks, compared to prior methods based on low-pass filtering. Arguably, our approach's emphasis on retaining high-frequency details contributes to a better balance between shift invariance and information preservation, resulting in improved performance. Furthermore, it has a lower computational cost and memory footprint than concurrent work, making it a promising solution for practical implementation.
Code
Repository list and official/mentioned flags are the archive's, frozen 2025-07-28. Reachability, where shown, is from one Syntology probe window (2026-09-16 to 2026-09-18); repositories not probed show nothing. GitHub stars are not tracked.
Code Syntology ran Syntology
Not run by Syntology. Nothing on this page verifies that the listed code works.
Results from the paper archive 2025-07-28
No leaderboard rows for this paper in the archive.
Methods
Report a problem or propose a change · a person checks every report against the paper or source before anything changes; decisions are listed on /corrections