# DeepCluE: Enhanced Image Clustering via Multi-layer Ensembles in Deep Neural Networks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.00359 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00359/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 40 of its 77 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Jun 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 40)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [Representation Learning with Contrastive Predictive Coding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.03748/) (2018)
- [Momentum Contrast for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05722/) (2019)
- [Bootstrap your own latent: A new approach to self-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.07733/) (2020)
- [Fashion-MNIST: a Novel Image Dataset for Benchmarking Machine Learning Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.07747/) (2017)
- [Exploring Simple Siamese Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.10566/) (2020)
- [Unsupervised Learning of Visual Features by Contrasting Cluster Assignments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09882/) (2020)
- [Improved Baselines with Momentum Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.04297/) (2020)
- [Unsupervised Representation Learning with Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.06434/) (2015)
- [Contrastive Multiview Coding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.05849/) (2019)
- [Deep Clustering for Unsupervised Learning of Visual Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.05520/) (2018)
- [Unsupervised Deep Embedding for Clustering Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.06335/) (2015)
- [Prototypical Contrastive Learning of Unsupervised Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.04966/) (2020)
- [Cluster-GCN: An Efficient Algorithm for Training Deep and Large Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.07953/) (2019)
- [Invariant Information Clustering for Unsupervised Image Classification and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.06653/) (2018)
- [SCAN: Learning to Classify Images without Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.12320/) (2020)
- [Discriminative Unsupervised Feature Learning with Exemplar Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1406.6909/) (2014)
- [Contrastive Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.09687/) (2020)
- [Towards K-means-friendly Spaces: Simultaneous Deep Learning and Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.04794/) (2016)
- [Unsupervised Embedding Learning via Invariant and Spreading Instance Feature](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03436/) (2019)
- [Joint Unsupervised Learning of Deep Representations and Image Clusters](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.03628/) (2016)
- [Learning Discrete Representations via Information Maximizing Self-Augmented Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.08720/) (2017)
- [Structural Deep Clustering Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.01633/) (2020)
- [Deep Clustering via Joint Convolutional Autoencoder Embedding and Relative Entropy Minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.06327/) (2017)
- [Deep Comprehensive Correlation Mining for Image Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.06925/) (2019)
- [Unsupervised Feature Learning by Cross-Level Instance-Group Discrimination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.03813/) (2020)
- [Ultra-Scalable Spectral Clustering and Ensemble Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.01057/) (2019)
- [HCSC: Hierarchical Contrastive Selective Coding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.00455/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [DivClust: Controlling Diversity in Deep Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.01042/) (2023)
- [Deep Image Clustering with Contrastive Learning and Multi-scale Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.07173/) (2022)
- [Historical Printed Ornaments: Dataset and Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.08633/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Deep clustering has recently emerged as a promising technique for complex data clustering. Despite the considerable progress, previous deep clustering works mostly build or learn the final clustering by only utilizing a single layer of representation, e.g., by performing the K-means clustering on the last fully-connected layer or by associating some clustering loss to a specific layer, which neglect the possibilities of jointly leveraging multi-layer representations for enhancing the deep clustering performance. In view of this, this paper presents a Deep Clustering via Ensembles (DeepCluE) approach, which bridges the gap between deep clustering and ensemble clustering by harnessing the power of multiple layers in deep neural networks. In particular, we utilize a weight-sharing convolutional neural network as the backbone, which is trained with both the instance-level contrastive learning (via an instance projector) and the cluster-level contrastive learning (via a cluster projector) in an unsupervised manner. Thereafter, multiple layers of feature representations are extracted from the trained network, upon which the ensemble clustering process is further conducted. Specifically, a set of diversified base clusterings are generated from the multi-layer representations via a highly efficient clusterer. Then the reliability of clusters in multiple base clusterings is automatically estimated by exploiting an entropy-based criterion, based on which the set of base clusterings are re-formulated into a weighted-cluster bipartite graph. By partitioning this bipartite graph via transfer cut, the final consensus clustering can be obtained. Experimental results on six image datasets confirm the advantages of DeepCluE over the state-of-the-art deep clustering approaches.