# A Novel Method for Accurate & Real-time Food Classification: The Synergistic Integration of EfficientNetB7, CBAM, Transfer Learning, and Data Augmentation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.02304 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02304/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 56 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Oct 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Densely Connected Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06993/) (2016)
- [EfficientNet: Rethinking Model Scaling for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.11946/) (2019)
- [Rethinking the Inception Architecture for Computer Vision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.00567/) (2015)
- [Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.01507/) (2017)
- [Aggregated Residual Transformations for Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.05431/) (2016)
- [CBAM: Convolutional Block Attention Module](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.06521/) (2018)
- [Xception: Deep Learning with Depthwise Separable Convolutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02357/) (2016)
- [Inception-v4, Inception-ResNet and the Impact of Residual Connections on Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.07261/) (2016)
- [A Comprehensive Survey on Transfer Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.02685/) (2019)
- [Learning Transferable Architectures for Scalable Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.07012/) (2017)
- [Regularized Evolution for Image Classifier Architecture Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.01548/) (2018)
- [AutoAugment: Learning Augmentation Policies from Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.09501/) (2018)
- [Progressive Neural Architecture Search](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.00559/) (2017)
- [A Survey of Convolutional Neural Networks: Analysis, Applications, and Prospects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.02806/) (2020)
- [A Review of Deep Transfer Learning and Recent Advancements](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.09679/) (2022)
- [PolyNet: A Pursuit of Structural Diversity in Very Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.05725/) (2016)
- [A Concise Review of Transfer Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.02144/) (2021)
- [Vision transformers in domain adaptation and domain generalization: a study of robustness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.04452/) (2024)
- [Deep Learning for Classifying Food Waste](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.03786/) (2020)
- [Comparison Analysis of Traditional Machine Learning and Deep Learning Techniques for Data and Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.05983/) (2022)
- [Computer Vision in the Food Industry: Accurate, Real-time, and Automatic Food Recognition with Pretrained MobileNetV2](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.11621/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Integrating artificial intelligence into modern society is profoundly transformative, significantly enhancing productivity by streamlining various daily tasks. AI-driven recognition systems provide notable advantages in the food sector, including improved nutrient tracking, tackling food waste, and boosting food production and consumption efficiency. Accurate food classification is a crucial initial step in utilizing advanced AI models, as the effectiveness of this process directly influences the success of subsequent operations; therefore, achieving high accuracy at a reasonable speed is essential. Despite existing research efforts, a gap persists in improving performance while ensuring rapid processing times, prompting researchers to pursue cost-effective and precise models. This study addresses this gap by employing the state-of-the-art EfficientNetB7 architecture, enhanced through transfer learning, data augmentation, and the CBAM attention module. This methodology results in a robust model that surpasses previous studies in accuracy while maintaining rapid processing suitable for real-world applications. The Food11 dataset from Kaggle was utilized, comprising 16643 imbalanced images across 11 diverse classes with significant intra-category diversities and inter-category similarities. Furthermore, the proposed methodology, bolstered by various deep learning techniques, consistently achieves an impressive average accuracy of 96.40%. Notably, it can classify over 60 images within one second during inference on unseen data, demonstrating its ability to deliver high accuracy promptly. This underscores its potential for practical applications in accurate food classification and enhancing efficiency in subsequent processes.