“I love sortering, especially beautiful mushrooms like this.” Jon thought
“But I heard something on object detection trying to micmic human ability. It combines object localization to create bounding boxes around each object and then image classification to classify the category of the item. But how?”
“Yes, object detection is the art of teaching machines to see and understand the world — not just what’s in an image, but where it is. It’s powered by deep learning and used in everything from autonomous vehicles to smart cameras.” said Mira-the dragon.
“Object detection models use deep learning, especially Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), to Extract features from images (edges, textures, shapes). Then, it Propose regions likely to contain objects. After that, it Classify each region and refine its location.”
“Cool, I’ll build an Object Detection Engine!” he said. He began building its training dataset with a simple class.
“This,” he said, holding up a bright red toadstool, “is a ‘Fungi-Friend.'” The Engine whirred, drawing a tight, glowing bounding box around the mushroom and saving it with the correct label.
Next, he showed it a Mandrake root. “Class: ‘Fungi-Friend’,” the Engine chimed, drawing a box around the Mandrake’s leafy head. “A false positive!” Pip cried as the Mandrake shrieked. “I need to add a ‘Grumble-Root’ class and provide more negative examples.”
Pip worked for weeks, augmenting his dataset. He showed the Engine thousands of annotated examples, adjusting the weights in its crystalline neural network. He tweaked the learning rate to minimize the loss function, teaching it to distinguish the subtle features of sparkle, glow, and texture.
“Now, I can use this for my store to count people and track products. I will also create another object detection model to spot intruders or suspicious behavior”
“La la la…” he sang.
🧰 Popular Object Detection Models
| Model | Superpower | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| YOLO (You Only Look Once) | Real-time speed 🏎️ | Live video, mobile apps |
| Faster R-CNN | High accuracy 🎯 | Medical imaging, research |
| SSD (Single Shot Detector) | Balance of speed & accuracy ⚖️ | Embedded systems |
| DETR (Detection Transformer) | Transformer-based magic ✨ | Complex scenes, future-ready |
| EfficientDet | Lightweight & scalable 🧳 | Edge devices, drones |
Each model has its own trade-offs between speed, accuracy, and computational cost.