Understanding Matrix Function Normalizations in Covariance Pooling from the Lens of Riemannian Geometry
Keywords: Global covariance pooling, SPD manifolds, Representation Learning, Riemannian Manifolds
TL;DR: We theoretically and empirically explain how matrix function normalization (e.g., matrix square root) enables Euclidean classifiers to effectively work with Riemannian covariance features in Global Covariance Pooling by Riemannian geometry.
Abstract: Global Covariance Pooling (GCP) has been demonstrated to improve the performance of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) by exploiting second-order statistics of high-level representations. GCP typically performs classification of the covariance matrices by applying matrix function normalization, such as matrix logarithm or power, followed by a Euclidean classifier. However, covariance matrices inherently lie in a Riemannian manifold, known as the Symmetric Positive Definite (SPD) manifold. The current literature does not provide a satisfactory explanation of why Euclidean classifiers can be applied directly to Riemannian features after the normalization of the matrix power. To mitigate this gap, this paper provides a comprehensive and unified understanding of the matrix logarithm and power from a Riemannian geometry perspective. The underlying mechanism of matrix functions in GCP is interpreted from two perspectives: one based on tangent classifiers (Euclidean classifiers on the tangent space) and the other based on Riemannian classifiers. Via theoretical analysis and empirical validation through extensive experiments on fine-grained and large-scale visual classification datasets, we conclude that the working mechanism of the matrix functions should be attributed to the Riemannian classifiers they implicitly respect.
Primary Area: learning on graphs and other geometries & topologies
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Submission Number: 466
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