A Multi-Scale Target Detection Method Using an Improved Faster Region Convolutional Neural Network Based on Enhanced Backbone and Optimized Mechanisms.

Currently, existing deep learning methods exhibit many limitations in multi-target detection, such as low accuracy and high rates of false detection and missed detections. This paper proposes an improved Faster R-CNN algorithm, aiming to enhance the algorithm's capability in detecting multi-scale targets. This algorithm has three improvements based on Faster R-CNN. Firstly, the new algorithm uses the ResNet101 network for feature extraction of the detection image, which achieves stronger feature extraction capabilities. Secondly, the new algorithm integrates Online Hard Example Mining (OHEM), Soft non-maximum suppression (Soft-NMS), and Distance Intersection Over Union (DIOU) modules, which improves the positive and negative sample imbalance and the problem of small targets being easily missed during model training. Finally, the Region Proposal Network (RPN) is simplified to achieve a faster detection speed and a lower miss rate. The multi-scale training (MST) strategy is also used to train the improved Faster R-CNN to achieve a balance between detection accuracy and efficiency. Compared to the other detection models, the improved Faster R-CNN demonstrates significant advantages in terms of mAP@0.5, F1-score, and Log average miss rate (LAMR). The model proposed in this paper provides valuable insights and inspiration for many fields, such as smart agriculture, medical diagnosis, and face recognition.