On Convolutional Neural Networks and Photographic Lenses

Convolutional neural networks are camera lenses to a computer.

A convolutional neural network

A camera lens

The analogy does not stop at the point that both compress visual information:

• The evolution of convolutional neural network architectures resembles the evolution of camera lenses.
• The P-R curve showing the performance of a convolutional neural network is strikingly similar to the MTF curve evaluating lens performance.

A P-R curve

An MTF curve