python - Tensorflow should I crop objects from the images for better accuarcy?

Question

I am new to tensorflow and I could not find an answer for my question.

I am trying to make a simple program what recognises the type of van from the picture. I downloaded about 100 pictures for my dataset from each category.

My question is should I crop the pictures so only the van is visible on the picture?

Or should I use the original picture with the background for better accuracy?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65831229/tensorflow-should-i-crop-objects-from-the-images-for-better-accuarcy

Answer 1

The short answer is yes it will, but there is a lot more to consider when asking that question. For example, when I use this model how will the images look? Will there be someone to manually crop these images and then use the model or will someone be taking these photos off of a cell phone using an app? A core concept of Machine learning is to have the images in the production environment as close to the training data as possible so that your performance in production doesn't change.

If you're just trying to learn I would highly recommend trying to build a network on MNIST or lego bricks dataset before you try on your own images as if you get stuck on either there are a lot of great resources available :). Also, consider setting aside 10 images as a Test set so that you can evaluate model performance. And third, Tensorflow has a built-in image dataset generator which will greatly improve your model performance on a small dataset like this. The TensorFlow image dataset generator can scale, rotate, flip and, zoom your images which will produce huge improvements in model accuracy.

Good luck!