DietCNN: Multiplication-free Inference for Quantized CNNs

The rising demand for networked embedded systems with machine intelligence has been a catalyst for sustained attempts by the research community to implement Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) based inferencing on embedded resource-limited devices. Redesigning a CNN by removing costly multiplication operations has already shown promising results in terms of reducing inference energy usage. This paper proposes a new method for replacing multiplications in a CNN by table look-ups. Unlike existing methods that completely modify the CNN operations, the proposed methodology preserves the semantics of the major CNN operations. Conforming to the existing mechanism of the CNN layer operations ensures that the reliability of a standard CNN is preserved. It is shown that the proposed multiplication-free CNN, based on a single activation codebook, can achieve 4.7x, 5.6x, and 3.5x reduction in energy per inference in an FPGA implementation of MNIST-LeNet-5, CIFAR10-VGG-11, and Tiny ImageNet-ResNet-18 respectively. Our results show that the DietCNN approach significantly improves the resource consumption and latency of deep inference for smaller models, often used in embedded systems. Our code is available at: https://github.com/swadeykgp/DietCNN

Artificial Intelligence Methods Based Hierarchical Classification of Frontotemporal Dementia to Improve Diagnostic Predictability

Patients with Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) have impaired cognitive abilities, executive and behavioral traits, loss of language ability, and decreased memory capabilities. Based on the distinct patterns of cortical atrophy and symptoms, the FTD spectrum primarily includes three variants: behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD), non-fluent variant primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA), and semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA). The purpose of this study is to classify MRI images of every single subject into one of the spectrums of the FTD in a hierarchical order by applying data-driven techniques of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on cortical thickness data. This data is computed by FreeSurfer software. We used the Smallest Univalue Segment Assimilating Nucleus (SUSAN) technique to minimize the noise in cortical thickness data. Specifically, we took 204 subjects from the frontotemporal lobar degeneration neuroimaging initiative (NIFTD) database to validate this approach, and each subject was diagnosed in one of the diagnostic categories (bvFTD, svPPA, nfvPPA and cognitively normal). Our proposed automated classification model yielded classification accuracy of 86.5, 76, and 72.7 with support vector machine (SVM), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and Naive Bayes methods, respectively, in 10-fold cross-validation analysis, which is a significant improvement on a traditional single multi-class model with an accuracy of 82.7, 73.4, and 69.2.