ResNeSt: Split-Attention Networks

The ability to learn richer network representations generally boosts the performance of deep learning models. To improve representation-learning in convolutional neural networks, we present a multi-branch architecture, which applies channel-wise attention across different network branches to leverage the complementary strengths of both feature-map attention and multi-path representation. Our proposed Split-Attention module provides a simple and modular computation block that can serve as a drop-in replacement for the popular residual block, while producing more diverse representations via cross-feature interactions. Adding a Split-Attention module into the architecture design space of RegNet-Y and FBNetV2 directly improves the performance of the resulting network. Replacing residual blocks with our Split-Attention module, we further design a new variant of the ResNet model, named ResNeSt, which outperforms EfficientNet in terms of the accuracy/latency trade-off.

Automated summary

The research presents a multi-branch architecture to improve representation learning in convolutional neural networks, leading to enhanced performance of deep learning models. Their approach leverages channel-wise attention to combine the strengths of feature-map attention and multi-path representation, resulting in more diverse representations.