Generalizing semi-supervised generative adversarial networks to regression

In this work, we generalize semi-supervised generative adversarial networks (GANs) from classification problems to regression problems. In the last few years, the importance of improving the training of neural networks using semi-supervised training has been demonstrated for classification problems. With probabilistic classification being a subset of regression problems, this generalization opens up many new possibilities for the use of semi-supervised GANs as well as presenting an avenue for a deeper understanding of how they function. We first demonstrate the capabilities of semi-supervised regression GANs on a toy dataset which allows for a detailed understanding of how they operate in various circumstances. This toy dataset is used to provide a theoretical basis of the semi-supervised regression GAN. We then apply the semi-supervised regression GANs to the real-world application of age estimation from single images. We perform extensive tests of what accuracies can be achieved with significantly reduced annotated data. Through the combination of the theoretical example and real-world scenario, we demonstrate how semi-supervised GANs can be generalized to regression problems.