to use a CNN: for data with spatial structure like images or time series

Why can't we just feed all data into one big neural net?

Imagine trying to understand a complex painting by looking at it from one spot at a time. You'd miss the details and the overall picture.

A CNN works like having multiple eyes scanning different parts of the painting at once, each focusing on different details. This way, you get a full understanding of the artwork.

Example

A CNN scans a 100x100 pixel image using 25 weights for a 5x5 tile, instead of 10,000 weights for a fully connected layer.

Remember this

A CNN efficiently processes spatial data by focusing on different parts simultaneously, avoiding the need for a massive number of connections.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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