The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is a mathematical model designed to distill input information into a more useful representation. This distillation process removes information over time through a series of dimensionality reductions, which ultimately, grant the model the ability to resist noise, and generalize effectively. However, CNNs often contain elements that are ineffective at contributing towards useful representations. This Thesis aims at providing a remedy for this problem by introducing Absolute Cosine Value Regularization (ACVR). This is a regularization technique hypothesized to increase the representational power of CNNs by using a Gradient Descent Orthogonalization algorithm to force the vectors that constitute their filters at any given convolutional layer to occupy unique positions in Rⁿ. This method should in theory, lead to a more effective balance between information loss and representational power, ultimately, increasing network performance. The following Thesis proposes and examines the mathematics and intuition behind ACVR, and goes on to propose Dynamic-ACVR (D-ACVR). This Thesis also proposes and examines the effects of ACVR on the filters of a low-dimensional CNN, as well as the effects of ACVR and D-ACVR on traditional Convolutional filters in VGG-19. Finally, this Thesis proposes and examines regularization of the Pointwise filters in MobileNetv1.

<p>3D character modeling is a crucial process of asset creation in the entertainment industry, particularly for animation and games. A fully automated pipeline via sketch-based 3D modeling (SBM) is an emerging possibility, but development is stalled by unrefined outputs and a lack of character-centered tools. This thesis proposes an improved method for constructing 3D character models with minimal user input, using only two sketch inputs  i.e., a front and side unshaded sketch. The system implements a deep convolutional neural network (CNN), a type of deep learning algorithm extending from artificial intelligence (AI), to process the input sketch and generate multi-view depth, normal and confidence maps that offer more information about the 3D surface. These are then fused into a 3D point cloud, which is a type of object representation for 3D space. This point cloud is converted into a 3D mesh via an occupancy network, involving another CNN, for a more precise 3D representation. This reconstruction step contends with non-deep learning approaches such as  Poisson reconstruction. The proposed system is evaluated for character generation on standardized quantitative metrics (i.e., Chamfer Distance [CD], Earth Mover’s Distance [EMD], F-score and Intersection of Union [IoU]), and compared to the base framework trained on the same character sketch and model database. This implementation offers a  significant improvement in the accuracy of vertex positions for the reconstructed character models. </p>

<p>Skin lesion can be deadliest if not detected early. Early detection of skin lesion can save many lives. Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning is helping healthcare in many ways and so in the diagnosis of skin lesion. Computer aided diagnosis help clinicians in detecting the cancer. The study was conducted to classify the seven classes of skin lesion using very powerful convolutional neural networks. The two pre trained models i.e., DenseNet and Incepton-v3 were employed to train the model and accuracy, precision, recall, f1score and ROC-AUC was calculated for every class prediction. Moreover, gradient class activation maps were also used to aid the clinicians in determining what are the regions of image that influence model to make a certain decision. These visualizations are used for explainability of the model. Experiments showed that DenseNet performed better then Inception V3. Also it was noted that gradient class activation maps highlighted different regions for predicting same class. The main contribution was to introduce medical aided visualizations in lesion classification model that will help clinicians in understanding the decisions of the model. It will enhance the reliability of the model. Also, different optimizers were employed with both models to compare the accuracies.</p>