DACBN: Dual attention convolutional broad network for fine-grained visual recognition

Fine-grained visual classification (FGVC) is a challenging task due to its small inter-class differences and large intra-class differences. Most existing methods rely on manual labeling of key identification areas, which requires high labor costs. In addition, existing methods also tend to ignore the differences effect of different feature channels in the feature map, which has a certain impact on the model classification accuracy. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes a dual attention convolutional broad network. Firstly, a new dual attention mechanism is designed to suppress the background noise of fine-grained images and give greater weight to the discriminative feature regions and channels. Secondly, the ensemble broad learning system framework is used to further enhance the dual attention features, so that the discriminative features can further improve the recognition ability of the model. Finally, by multiple comparative experiments, it is reported that the method proposed in this article has achieved excellent recognition results on three commonly used datasets.