Understanding Neural Networks Through Deep Visualization

Recent years have produced great advances in training large, deep neural networks (DNNs), including notable successes in training convolutional neural networks (convnets) to recognize natural images. However, our understanding of how these models work, especially what computations they perform at intermediate layers, has lagged behind. Progress in the field will be further accelerated by the development of better tools for visualizing and interpreting neural nets. We introduce two such tools here. The first is a tool that visualizes the activations produced on each layer of a trained convnet as it processes an image or video (e.g. a live webcam stream). We have found that looking at live activations that…