Skin cancer classification leveraging multi-directional compact convolutional neural network ensembles and gabor wavelets

Abstract

AbstractSkin cancer (SC) is an important medical condition that necessitates prompt identification to ensure timely treatment. Although visual evaluation by dermatologists is considered the most reliable method, its efficacy is subjective and laborious. Deep learning-based computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) platforms have become valuable tools for supporting dermatologists. Nevertheless, current CAD tools frequently depend on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) with huge amounts of deep layers and hyperparameters, single CNN model methodologies, large feature space, and exclusively utilise spatial image information, which restricts their effectiveness. This study presents SCaLiNG, an innovative CAD tool specifically developed to address and surpass these constraints. SCaLiNG leverages a collection of three compact CNNs and Gabor Wavelets (GW) to acquire a comprehensive feature vector consisting of spatial–textural–frequency attributes. SCaLiNG gathers a wide range of image details by breaking down these photos into multiple directional sub-bands using GW, and then learning several CNNs using those sub-bands and the original picture. SCaLiNG also combines attributes taken from various CNNs trained with the actual images and subbands derived from GW. This fusion process correspondingly improves diagnostic accuracy due to the thorough representation of attributes. Furthermore, SCaLiNG applies a feature selection approach which further enhances the model’s performance by choosing the most distinguishing features. Experimental findings indicate that SCaLiNG maintains a classification accuracy of 0.9170 in categorising SC subcategories, surpassing conventional single-CNN models. The outstanding performance of SCaLiNG underlines its ability to aid dermatologists in swiftly and precisely recognising and classifying SC, thereby enhancing patient outcomes.