Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – VIII – TF 2 GradientTape(), KL loss and metrics

I continue with my series on options for an implementation of the Kullback-Leibler divergence as a loss [KL loss] contribution in Variational Autoencoder [VAE] models:

Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – I – some basics
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – II – an Autoencoder with binary-crossentropy loss
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – III – problems with the KL loss and eager execution
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – IV – simple rules to avoid problems with eager execution
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – V – a customized Encoder layer for the KL loss
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – VI – KL loss via tensor transfer and multiple output
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – VII – KL loss via model.add_loss()

Our objective is to avoid or circumvent potential problems with the eager execution mode of present Tensorflow 2 versions. I have already described three solutions based on standard Keras functionality:

  • Either we add loss contributions via the function layer.add_loss()and a special layer of the Encoder part of the VAE
  • or we add a loss to the output of a full VAE-model via function model.add_loss()
  • or we build a complex model which transports required KL-related tensors from the Encoder part of the VAE model to the Decoder’s output layer.

In all these cases we invoke native Keras functions to handle loss contributions and related operations. Keras controls the calculation of the gradient components of the KL related tensors “mu” and “log_var” in the background for us. This comprises partial derivatives with respect to trainable weight variables of lower Encoder layers and related operations. The same holds for partial derivatives of reconstruction tensors at the Decoder’s output layer with respect to trainable parameters of all layers of the VAE-model. Keras does most of the job

  • of derivative calculation and the registration of related operation sequences during forward pass
  • and the correct application of the registered operations and values in later weight corrections during backward propagation

for us in the background as long as we respect certain rules for eager mode execution.

But Tensorflow 2 [TF2] gives us a much more flexible and low-level option to control the calculation of gradients under the conditions of eager execution. This option requires that we inform the TF/Keras machinery which processes the training steps of an epoch of how to exactly calculate losses and their partial derivatives. Rules to determine and create metrics output must be provided in addition.

TF2 provides a context for registering operations for loss and derivative evaluations. This context is provided by a functional object called GradientTape(). In addition we have to write an encapsulating function “train_step()” to control gradient calculations and output during training.

In this post I will describe how we integrate such an approach with our class “MyVariationalAutoencoder()” for the setup of a VAE model based on convolutional layers. I have discussed the elements and methods of this class MyVariationalAutoencoder() in detail during the last posts.

Regarding the core of the technical solution for train_step() and GradientTape() I follow more or less the recommendations of one of the masters of Keras: F. Chollet. His original code for a TF2-compatible implementation of a VAE can be found here:
https://keras.io/ examples/ generative/vae/

However, in my opinion Chollet’s code contains a small problem, which I have allowed myself to correct.

The general recipe presented here can, of course, be extended to more complex tasks beyond the optimization of KL and reconstruction losses of VAEs. Therefore, a brief study of the methods to establish detailed loss control is really worth it for ML and VAE beginners. But TF2 and Keras experts will not learn anything new from this post.

I provide the pure code of the classes in this post. In the next post you will find Jupyter cell code for an application to the Celeb A dataset. To prove that the classes below do their job in the end I show you some faces which have been created from arbitrarily chosen points in the latent space after training.

These faces do not exist in reality. They are constructed by the VAE based on compressed and “normalized” data for face patterns and face attribute distributions in the latent space. Note that I used a latent space with a dimension of z_dim =200.

Layer setup by class MyVariationalAutoencoder()

We have already many of the required methods ready. In the last posts we used the flexible functional interface of Keras to set up Neural Network models for both Encoder and Decoder, each with sequences of (convolutional) layers. For our present purposes we will not change the elementary layer structure of the Encoder or Decoder. In particular the layers for the “mu” and “log_var” contributions to the KL loss and a subsequent sampling-layer of the Encoder will remain unchanged.

In the course of the last two posts I have already introduced a parameter “solution_type” to control specifics of our VAE model. We shall use it now to invoke a child class of Keras’ Model() which allows for detailed steps of loss and gradient evaluations.

A child class of keras.models.Model() for loss and gradient evaluation

The standard Keras method Model.fit() normally provides a convenient interface for Keras users. We do not have to think about calling the low-level functions at all if we do not want to or do not need to control gradient calculations in detail. In our present approach, however, we use the low level functionality of GradientTape() directly. This requires to overwrite a specific method of the standard Keras class Model() – namely the function “train_step()”.

If you have never worked with a self-defined training_step() and GradientTape() before then I recommend to read the following introductions first:
https://www.tensorflow.org/ guide/ autodiff
customizing what happens in fit() and the relation to training_step()
These articles contain valuable information about how to operate at low level with training_step() regarding losses, derivatives and metrics. This information will help to better understand the methods of a new class VAE() which I am going to derive from Keras’ class Model() below.

Let us first briefly repeat some imports required.

Imports

# Imports 
# ~~~~~~~~ 
import sys
import numpy as np
import os
import pickle

import tensorflow as tf
import tensorflow.keras as keras
from tensorflow.keras.layers import Layer, Input, Conv2D, Flatten, Dense, Conv2DTranspose, Reshape, Lambda, \
                                    Activation, BatchNormalization, ReLU, LeakyReLU, ELU, Dropout, AlphaDropout
from tensorflow.keras.models import Model
# to be consistent with my standard loading of the Keras backend in Jupyter notebooks:  
from tensorflow.keras import backend as B      
from tensorflow.keras import metrics
#from tensorflow.keras.backend import binary_crossentropy

from tensorflow.keras.optimizers import Adam
from tensorflow.keras.callbacks import ModelCheckpoint 
from tensorflow.keras.utils import plot_model

#from tensorflow.python.debug.lib.check_numerics_callback import _maybe_lookup_original_input_tensor

# Personal: The following works only if the path in the notebook is supplemented by the path to /projects/GIT/mlx
# The user has to organize his paths for modules to be referred to from Jupyter notebooks himself and 
# replace this settings  
from mynotebooks.my_AE_code.utils.callbacks import CustomCallback, VAE_CustomCallback, step_decay_schedule    
from keras.callbacks import ProgbarLogger

Now we define a class VAE() which inherits basic functionality from the Keras class Model() and overwrite the method train_step(). We shall later create an instance of this new class within an object of class MyVariationalAutoencoder().

New Class VAE

from tensorflow.keras import metrics
...
...
# A child class of Model() to control train_step with GradientTape() 
class VAE(keras.Model): 
    
    # We use our self defined __init__() to provide a reference MyVAE 
    # to an object of type "MyVariationalAutoencoder" 
    # This in turn allows us to address the Encoder and the Decoder  
    def __init__(self, MyVAE, **kwargs):
        super(VAE, self).__init__(**kwargs)
        self.MyVAE   = MyVAE 
        self.encoder = self.MyVAE.encoder
        self.decoder = self.MyVAE.decoder
        
        # A factor to control the ratio between the KL loss and the reconstruction loss 
        self.fact = MyVAE.fact
        
        # A counter 
        self.count = 0 
        
        # A factor to scale the absolute values of the losses 
        # e.g. by the number of pixels of an image
        self.scale_fact = 1.0  # no scaling
        # self.scale_fact = tf.constant(self.MyVAE.input_dim[0] * self.MyVAE.input_dim[1], dtype=tf.float32)
        self.f_scale    = 1. / self.scale_fact
        
        # loss type : 0: BCE, 1: MSE 
        self.loss_type = self.MyVAE.loss_type
        
        # track loss development via metrics 
        self.total_loss_tracker = keras.metrics.Mean(name="total_loss")
        self.reco_loss_tracker  = keras.metrics.Mean(name="reco_loss")
        self.kl_loss_tracker    = keras.metrics.Mean(name="kl_loss")

    def call(self, inputs):
        x, z_m, z_var = self.encoder(inputs)
        return self.decoder(x)  

    # Overwrite the metrics() of Model() - use getter mechanism  
    @property
    def metrics(self):
        return [
            self.total_loss_tracker,
            self.reco_loss_tracker,
            self.kl_loss_tracker
        ]

    # Core function to control all operations regarding eager differentiation operations, 
    # i.e. the calculation of loss terms with respect to tensors and differentiation variables 
    # and metrics data 
    def train_step(self, data):
        # We use the GradientTape context to record differntiation operations/results 
        #self.count += 1 
        
        with tf.GradientTape() as tape:
            z, z_mean, z_log_var = self.encoder(data)
            reconstruction = self.decoder(z)
            #reco_shape = tf.shape(self.reconstruction)
            #print("reco_shape = ", reco_shape, self.reconstruction.shape, data.shape)
            
            #BCE loss (Binary Cross Entropy) 
            if self.loss_type == 0: 
                reconstruction_loss = tf.reduce_mean(
                    tf.reduce_sum(
                        keras.losses.binary_crossentropy(data, reconstruction), axis=(1, 2)
                    )
                ) * self.f_scale
            
            # MSE loss (Mean Squared Error) 
            if self.loss_type == 1: 
                reconstruction_loss = tf.reduce_mean(
                    tf.reduce_sum(
                        keras.losses.mse(data, reconstruction), axis=(1, 2)
                    )
                ) * self.f_scale
            
            kl_loss = -0.5 * self.fact * (1 + z_log_var - tf.square(z_mean) - tf.exp(z_log_var))
            kl_loss = tf.reduce_mean(tf.reduce_sum(kl_loss, axis=1))  
            total_loss = reconstruction_loss + kl_loss 
        
        grads = tape.gradient(total_loss, self.trainable_weights)
        self.optimizer.apply_gradients(zip(grads, self.trainable_weights))
        #if self.count == 1: 
            
        self.total_loss_tracker.update_state(total_loss)
        self.reco_loss_tracker.update_state(reconstruction_loss)
        self.kl_loss_tracker.update_state(kl_loss)
        return {
            "total_loss": self.total_loss_tracker.result(),
            "reco_loss": self.reco_loss_tracker.result(),
            "kl_loss": self.kl_loss_tracker.result(),
        }
        
    def compile_VAE(self, learning_rate):

        # Optimizer
        # ~~~~~~~~~ 
        optimizer = Adam(learning_rate=learning_rate)
        # save the learning rate for possible intermediate output to files 
        self.learning_rate = learning_rate
        self.compile(optimizer=optimizer)

Explanation of class VAE(): Details of the methods of the additional class

First, we need to import an additional library tensorflow.keras.metrics. Its functions, as e.g. Mean(), will help us to print out intermediate data about various loss contributions during training – averaged over the batches of an epoch.

Then, we have added four central methods to class VAE:

  • a function __init__(),
  • a function metrics() together with Python’s getter-mechanism
  • a function call()
  • and our central function training_step().

All functions overwrite the defaults of the parent class Model(). Be careful to distinguish the range of batches which keras.metrics() and training_step() operate on:

  • A “training step” covers just one batch eventually provided to the training mechanism by the Model.fit()-function.
  • Averaging performed by functions of keras.metrics instead works across all batches of an epoch.

Functions “__init__() ” and call() to instantiate a Model based on class VAE()

In general we can use the standard interface of __init__(inputs, outputs, …) or a call()-interface to instantiate an object of class-type Model(). See
https://www.tensorflow.org/ api_docs/python/ tf/ keras/ Model
https://docs.w3cub.com/ tensorflow~python/ tf/ keras/ model.html

We have to be precise about the parameters of __init()__ or the call()-interface if we intend to use properties of the standard compile()– and fit()-interfaces of a model – at least in application cases where we do not control everything regarding losses and gradients ourselves.

To define a complete model for the general case we therefore add the call()-method. At the same time we “misuse” the __init__() function of VAE() to provide a reference to our instance of class “MyVariationalAutoencoder”. Actually, providing “call()” is done only for the sake of flexibility in other use cases than the one discussed here. For our present purposes we could actually omit call().

The __init__()-function retrieves some parameters from MyVAE. You see the factor “fact” which controls the ratio of the KL-loss to the reconstruction loss. In addition I provided an option to scale the loss values by a division by the number of pixels of input images. You just have to un-comment the respective statement. Sorry, I have not yet made it controllable by a parameter of MyVariationalAutoencoder().

Finally, the parameter loss_type is evaluated; for a value of “1” we take MSE as a loss function instead of the standard BCE (Binary Cross-Entropy); see the Jupyter cells in the next post. This allows for some more flexibility in dealing with certain datasets.

Function “metrics()” to produce loss values as output during training

With the function metrics() we are able to establish our own “tracking” of the evolution of the Model’s loss contributions during training. In our case we are particularly interested in the evolution of the “reconstruction loss” and the “KL-loss“.

Note that the @property decorator is added to the metrics()-function. This allows us to define its output via the getter-mechanism for Python classes. In our case the __init__()-function defines the mechanism to fill required variables:
The three “tracker”-variables there get their values from the function tensorflow.keras.metrics.Mean(). Note that the names given to the loss-trackers in __init__() are of importance for later output handling!

Note also that keras.metrics.Mean() calculates averages over values derived for all batches of an epoch. The tf.reduce_mean()-statements in the GradientTape() section of the code above, instead, refer to averages calculated over the samples of a single batch.

Actualized loss output is later delivered during each training step by the method update_state(). You find a description of the methods of keras.metrics.Mean() here.

The result of all this is that metrics() delivers loss values by actualized tracker-variables of our child class VAE(). Note that neither __init__() nor metrics() define what exactly is to be done to calculate each loss term. __init__() and metrics() only prepare the later output technically by formal class constructs. Note also that all the data defined by metrics() are updated and averaged per epoch without the requirement to call the function “reset_states()” (see the Keras docs). This is automatically done at the beginning of each epoch.

train_step() and GradientTape() to control losses and their gradients

Let us turn to the necessary calculations which must be performed during each training step. In an eager environment we must watch the trainable variables, on which the different loss terms depend, to be able to calculate the partial derivatives and record related operations and intermediate results already during forward pass:

We must track the differentiation operations and resulting values to know exactly what has to be done in reverse during error backward propagation. To be able to do this TF2 offers us a recording mechanism called GradientTape(). Its results are kept in an object which often is called a “tape”.

You find more information about these topics at
https://debuggercafe.com/ basics-of-tensorflow-gradienttape/
https://runebook.dev/de/docs/ tensorflow/gradienttape

Within train_step() we need some tensors which are required for loss calculations in an explicit form. So, we must change the Keras model for the Encoder to give us the tensors for “mu” and “log_var” as its output.

This is no problem for us. We have already made the output of the Encoder dependent on a variable “solution_type” and discussed a multi-output Encoder model already in the post Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow 2.8 – VI – KL loss via tensor transfer and multiple output.

Therefore, we just have to add a new value 3 to the checks of “solution_type”. The same is true for the input control of the Decoder (see a section about the related methods of MyVariationalAutoencoder() below).

The statements within the section for GradientTape() deal with the calculation of loss terms and record the related operations. All the calculations should be be familiar from previous posts of this series.

This includes an identification of the trainable_weights of the involved layers. Quote from
https://keras.io/ guides/ writing_a_ training_loop_ from_scratch/ #using-the-gradienttape-a-first-endtoend-example:

Calling a model inside a GradientTape scope enables you to retrieve the gradients of the trainable weights of the layer with respect to a loss value. Using an optimizer instance, you can use these gradients to update these variables (which you can retrieve using model.trainable_weights).

In train_step() we need to register that the total loss is dependent on all trainable weights and that all related partial derivatives have to be taken into account during optimization. This is done by

        grads = tape.gradient(total_loss, self.trainable_weights)
        self.optimizer.apply_gradients(zip(grads, self.trainable_weights))

To be able to get actualized output during training we update the state of all tracked variables:

        self.total_loss_tracker.update_state(total_loss)
        self.reco_loss_tracker.update_state(reco_loss)
        self.kl_loss_tracker.update_state(kl_loss)

A small problem with F. Chollet’s code

The careful reader may have noticed that my code of the function “train_step()” deviates from F. Chollet’s recommendations. Regarding the return statement I use

        return {
            "total_loss": self.total_loss_tracker.result(),
            "reco_loss": self.reco_loss_tracker.result(),
            "kl_loss": self.kl_loss_tracker.result(),
        }

whilst F. Chollet’s original code contains a statement like

        return {
            "loss": self.total_loss_tracker.result(),     # here lies the main difference - different "name" than defined in __init__!
            "reconstruction_loss": self.reconstruction_loss_tracker.result(),  # ignore my abbreviation to reco_loss 
            "kl_loss": self.kl_loss_tracker.result(),
        }

Chollet’s original code unfortunately gives inconsistent loss data: The sum of his “reconstruction loss” and the “KL (Kullback Leibler) loss” do not add up to the (total) “loss”. This can be seen from the data of the first epochs in F. Chollet’s example on the tutorial at
keras.io/ examples/ generative/ vae.

Some of my own result data for the MNIST example with this error look like:

Epoch 1/5
469/469 [============================_build_dec==] - 7s 13ms/step - reconstruction_loss: 209.0115 - kl_loss: 3.4888 - loss: 258.9048
Epoch 2/5
469/469 [==============================] - 7s 14ms/step - reconstruction_loss: 173.7905 - kl_loss: 4.8220 - loss: 185.0963
Epoch 3/5
469/469 [==============================] - 6s 13ms/step - reconstruction_loss: 160.4016 - kl_loss: 5.7511 - loss: 167.3470
Epoch 4/5
469/469 [==============================] - 6s 13ms/step - reconstruction_loss: 155.5937 - kl_loss: 5.9947 - loss: 162.3994
Epoch 5/5
469/469 [==============================] - 6s 13ms/step - reconstruction_loss: 152.8330 - kl_loss: 6.1689 - loss: 159.5607

Things do get better from epoch to epoch – but we want a consistent output from the beginning: The averaged (total) loss should always be printed as equal to the sum of the averaged) KL loss plus the reconstruction loss.

The deviation is surprising as we seem to use the right tracker-results in the code. And the name used in the return statement of the train_step()-function here should only be relevant for the printing …

However, the name “loss” is NOT consistent with the name defined in the statement Mean(name=”total_loss”) in the __init__() function of Chollet, where he defines his tracking mechanisms.

self.total_loss_tracker = keras.metrics.Mean(name="total_loss")

This has consequences: The inconsistency triggers a different output than a consistent use of names. Just try it out on your own …

This is not only true for the deviation between “loss” in

return {
            "loss": self.total_loss_tracker.result(),
            ....
       }

and “total_loss” in the __init__) function

self.total_loss_tracker = keras.metrics.Mean(name="total_loss") , namely a value lacking averaging  -     

but also for deviations in the names used for the other loss contributions. In case of an inconsistency Keras seems to fall back to a default here which does not reflect the standard linear averaging of Mean() over all values calculated for the batches of an epoch (without any special weights).

That there is some common default mechanism working can be seen from the fact that wrong names for all individual losses (here the KL loss and the reconstruction loss) give us at least a consistent sum-value for the total amount again. But all the values derived by the fallback are much closer to the start values at an epochs begin than the mean values averaged over an epoch. You may test this yourself.

To get on the safe side we use the correct “names” defined in the __init__()-function of our code:

        return {
            "total_loss": self.total_loss_tracker.result(),
            "reco_loss": self.reco_loss_tracker.result(),
            "kl_loss": self.kl_loss_tracker.result(),
        }

For MNIST data fed into our VAE model we then get:

Epoch 1/5
469/469 [==============================] - 8s 13ms/step - reco_loss: 214.5662 - kl_loss: 2.6004 - total_loss: 217.1666
Epoch 2/5
469/469 [==============================] - 7s 14ms/step - reco_loss: 186.4745 - kl_loss: 3.2799 - total_loss: 189.7544
Epoch 3/5
469/469 [==============================] - 6s 13ms/step - reco_loss: 181.9590 - kl_loss: 3.4186 - total_loss: 185.3774
Epoch 4/5
469/469 [==============================] - 6s 13ms/step - reco_loss: 177.5216 - kl_loss: 3.9433 - total_loss: 181.4649
Epoch 5/5
469/469 [==============================] - 6s 13ms/step - reco_loss: 163.7209 - kl_loss: 5.5816 - total_loss: 169.3026

This is exactly what we want.

A general recipe to use train_step()

So, the general recipe is:

  • Define what metric properties you are interested in. Create respective tracker-variables in the __init__() function.
  • Use the getter mechanism to define your metrics() function and its output via references to the trackers.
  • Define your own training step by a function train_step().
  • Use Tensorflow’s GradientTape context to register statements which control the calculation of loss contributions from elementary tensors of your (functional) Keras model. Provide all layers there, e.g. by references to their models.
  • Register gradient-operations of the total loss with respect to all trainable weights and updates of metrics data within function “train_step()”.

Actually, I have used the GradientTape() mechanism already in this blog when I played a bit with approaches to create so called DeepDream images. See
https://linux-blog.anracom.com/category/machine-learning/deep-dream/
for more information – there in a different context.

How to combine the classes “VAE()” and “MyVariationalAutoencoder()” ?

Where do we stand? We have defined a new class “VAE()” which modifies the original Keras Model() class. And we have our class “MyVariationalAutoencoder()” to control the setup of a VAE model.

Next we need to address the question of how we combine these two classes. If you have read my previous posts you may expect a major change to the method “_build_VAE()“. This is correct, but we also have to modify the conditions for the Encoder output construction in _build_enc() and the definition of the Decoder’s input in _build_dec(). Therefore I give you the modified code for these functions. For reasons of completeness I add the code for the __init__()-function:

Function __init__()

    def __init__(self
        , input_dim                  # the shape of the input tensors (for MNIST (28,28,1)) 
        , encoder_conv_filters       # number of maps of the different Conv2D layers   
        , encoder_conv_kernel_size   # kernel sizes of the Conv2D layers 
        , encoder_conv_strides       # strides - here also used to reduce spatial resolution avoid pooling layers 
                                     # used instead of Pooling layers 
        , encoder_conv_padding       # padding - valid or same  
        
        , decoder_conv_t_filters     # number of maps in Con2DTranspose layers 
        , decoder_conv_t_kernel_size # kernel sizes of Conv2D Transpose layers  
        , decoder_conv_t_strides     # strides for Conv2dTranspose layers - inverts spatial resolution
        , decoder_conv_t_padding     # padding - valid or same  
        
        , z_dim                      # A good start is 16 or 24  
        , solution_type  = 0         # Which type of solution for the KL loss calculation ?
        , act            = 0         # Which type of activation function?  
        , fact           = 0.65e-4   # Factor for the KL loss (0.5e-4 < fact < 1.e-3is reasonable) 
        , loss_type      = 0         # 0: BCE, 1: MSE   
        , use_batch_norm = False     # Shall BatchNormalization be used after Conv2D layers? 
        , use_dropout    = False     # Shall statistical dropout layers be used for tregularization purposes ? 
        , dropout_rate   = 0.25      # Rate for statistical dropout layer  
        , b_build_all    = False     # Added by RMO - full Model is build in 2 steps 
        ):
        
        '''
        Input: 
        The encoder_... and decoder_.... variables are Python lists,
        whose length defines the number of Conv2D and Conv2DTranspose layers 
        
        input_dim : Shape/dimensions of the input tensor - for MNIST (28,28,1) 
        encoder_conv_filters:     List with the number of maps/filters per Conv2D layer    
        encoder_conv_kernel_size: List with the kernel sizes for the Conv-Layers   
        encoder_conv_strides:     List with the strides used for the Conv-Layers   

        z_dim : dimension of the "latent_space"
        solution_type : Type of solution for KL loss calculation (0: Customized Encoder layer, 
                                                                  1: transfer of mu, var_log to Decoder 
                                                                  2: model.add_loss()
                                                                  3: definition of training step with Gradient.Tape()
        
        act :  determines activation function to use (0: LeakyRELU, 1:RELU , 2: SELU)
               !!!! NOTE: !!!!
               If SELU is used then the weight kernel initialization and the dropout layer need to be special   
               https://github.com/christianversloot/machine-learning-articles/blob/main/using-selu-with-tensorflow-and-keras.md
               AlphaDropout instead of Dropout + LeCunNormal for kernel initializer
        fact = 0.65e-4 : Factor to scale the KL loss relative to the reconstruction loss
                         Must be adapted to the way of calculation - 
                         e.g. for solution_type == 3 the loss is not averaged over all pixels 
                         => at least factor of around 1000 bigger than normally 
        loss-type = 0:   Defines the way we calculate a reconstruction loss 
                         0: Binary Cross Entropy - recommended by many authors 
                         1: Mean Square error - recommended by some authors especially for "face arithmetics"
        use_batch_norm = False   # True : We use BatchNormalization   
        use_dropout    = False   # True : We use dropout layers (rate = 0.25, see Encoder)
        b_build_all    = False   # True : Full VAE Model is build in 1 step; 
                                   False: Encoder, Decoder, VAE are build in separate steps   
        '''
        
        self.name = 'variational_autoencoder'

        # Parameters for Layers which define the Encoder and Decoder 
        self.input_dim                  = input_dim
        self.encoder_conv_filters       = encoder_conv_filters
        self.encoder_conv_kernel_size   = encoder_conv_kernel_size
        self.encoder_conv_strides       = encoder_conv_strides
        self.encoder_conv_padding       = encoder_conv_padding
        
        self.decoder_conv_t_filters     = decoder_conv_t_filters
        self.decoder_conv_t_kernel_size = decoder_conv_t_kernel_size
        self.decoder_conv_t_strides     = decoder_conv_t_strides
        self.decoder_conv_t_padding     = decoder_conv_t_padding
        
        self.z_dim = z_dim

        # Check param for activation function 
        if act < 0 or act > 2: 
            print("Range error: Parameter act = " + str(act) + " has unknown value ")  
            sys.exit()
        else:
            self.act = act 
        
        # Factor to scale the KL loss relative to the Binary Cross Entropy loss 
        self.fact = fact 
        
        # Type of loss - 0: BCE, 1: MSE 
        self.loss_type = loss_type
        
        
        # Check param for solution approach  
        if solution_type < 0 or solution_type > 3: 
            print("Range error: Parameter solution_type = " + str(solution_type) + " has unknown value ")  
            sys.exit()
        else:
            self.solution_type = solution_type 

        self.use_batch_norm = use_batch_norm
        self.use_dropout    = use_dropout
        self.dropout_rate   = dropout_rate

        # Preparation of some variables to be filled later 
        self._encoder_input  = None  # receives the Keras object for the Input Layer of the Encoder 
        self._encoder_output = None  # receives the Keras object for the Output Layer of the Encoder 
        self.shape_before_flattening = None # info of the Encoder => is used by Decoder 
        self._decoder_input  = None  # receives the Keras object for the Input Layer of the Decoder
        self._decoder_output = None  # receives the Keras object for the Output Layer of the Decoder

        # Layers / tensors for KL loss 
        self.mu      = None # receives special Dense Layer's tensor for KL-loss 
        self.log_var = None # receives special Dense Layer's tensor for KL-loss 

        # Parameters for SELU - just in case we may need to use it somewhere 
        # https://keras.io/api/layers/activations/ see selu
        self.selu_scale = 1.05070098
        self.selu_alpha = 1.67326324

        # The number of Conv2D and Conv2DTranspose layers for the Encoder / Decoder 
        self.n_layers_encoder = len(encoder_conv_filters)
        self.n_layers_decoder = len(decoder_conv_t_filters)

        self.num_epoch = 0 # Intialization of the number of epochs 

        # A matrix for the values of the losses 
        self.std_loss  = tf.TensorArray(tf.float32, size=0, dynamic_size=True, clear_after_read=False)

        # We only build the whole AE-model if requested
        self.b_build_all = b_build_all
        if b_build_all:
            self._build_all()


Changes to the Encoder and Decoder code

We just need to set the right options for the output tensors of the Encoder and the input tensors of the Decoder. The relevant code parts are controlled by the parameter “solution_type”.

Modified code of _build_enc() of class MyVariationalAutoencoder

    def _build_enc(self, solution_type = -1, fact=-1.0):
        '''  Your documentation '''
        # Checking whether "fact" and "solution_type" for the KL loss shall be overwritten
        if fact < 0:
            fact = self.fact  
        if solution_type < 0:
            solution_type = self.solution_type
        else: 
            self.solution_type = solution_type
        
        # Preparation: We later need a function to calculate the z-points in the latent space 
        # The following function wiChangedll be used by an eventual Lambda layer of the Encoder 
        def z_point_sampling(args):
            '''
            A point in the latent space is calculated statistically 
            around an optimized mu for each sample 
            '''
            mu, log_var = args # Note: These are 1D tensors !
            epsilon = B.random_normal(shape=B.shape(mu), mean=0., stddev=1.)
            return mu + B.exp(log_var / 2) * epsilon

        
        # Input "layer"
        self._encoder_input = Input(shape=self.input_dim, name='encoder_input')

        # Initialization of a running variable x for individual layers 
        x = self._encoder_input

        # Build the CNN-part with Conv2D layers 
        # Note that stride>=2 reduces spatial resolution without the help of pooling layers 
        for i in range(self.n_layers_encoder):
            conv_layer = Conv2D(
                filters = self.encoder_conv_filters[i]
                , kernel_size = self.encoder_conv_kernel_size[i]
                , strides = self.encoder_conv_strides[i]
                , padding = 'same'  # Important ! Controls the shape of the layer tensors.    
                , name = 'encoder_conv_' + str(i)
                )
            x = conv_layer(x)
            
            # The "normalization" should be done ahead of the "activation" 
            if self.use_batch_norm:
                x = BatchNormalization()(x)

            # Selection of activation function (out of 3)      
            if self.act == 0:
                x = LeakyReLU()(x)
            elif self.act == 1:
                x = ReLU()(x)
            elif self.act == 2: 
                # RMO: Just use the Activation layer to use SELU with predefined (!) parameters 
                x = Activation('selu')(x) 

            # Fulfill some SELU requirements 
            if self.use_dropout:
                if self.act == 2: 
                    x = AlphaDropout(rate = 0.25)(x)
                else:
                    x = Dropout(rate = 0.25)(x)

        # Last multi-dim tensor shape - is later needed by the decoder 
        self._shape_before_flattening = B.int_shape(x)[1:]

        # Flattened layer before calculating VAE-output (z-points) via 2 special layers 
        x = Flatten()(x)
        
        # "Variational" part - create 2 Dense layers for a statistical distribution of z-points  
        self.mu      = Dense(self.z_dim, name='mu')(x)
        self.log_var = Dense(self.z_dim, name='log_var')(x)

        if solution_type == 0: 
            # Customized layer for the calculation of the KL loss based on mu, var_log data
            # We use a customized layer according to a class definition  
            self.mu, self.log_var = My_KL_Layer()([self.mu, self.log_var], fact=fact)


        # Layer to provide a z_point in the Latent Space for each sample of the batch 
        self._encoder_output = Lambda(z_point_sampling, name='encoder_output')([self.mu, self.log_var])

        # The Encoder Model 
        # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        # With extra KL layer or with vae.add_loss()
        if self.solution_type == 0 or self.solution_type == 2: 
            self.encoder = Model(self._encoder_input, self._encoder_output, name="encoder")
        
        # Transfer solution => Multiple outputs 
        if self.solution_type == 1  or self.solution_type == 3: 
            self.encoder = Model(inputs=self._encoder_input, outputs=[self._encoder_output, self.mu, self.log_var], name="encoder")

The difference is the dependency of the output on “solution_type 3”. For the Decoder we have:

Modified code of _build_enc() of class MyVariationalAutoencoder

    def _build_dec(self):
        ''' Your documentation       '''       
 
        # Input layer - aligned to the shape of z-points in the latent space = output[0] of the Encoder 
        self._decoder_inp_z = Input(shape=(self.z_dim,), name='decoder_input')
        
        # Additional Input layers for the KL tensors (mu, log_var) from the Encoder
        if self.solution_type == 1  or self.solution_type == 3: 
            self._dec_inp_mu       = Input(shape=(self.z_dim), name='mu_input')
            self._dec_inp_var_log  = Input(shape=(self.z_dim), name='logvar_input')
            
            # We give the layers later used as output a name 
            # Each of the Activation layers below just correspond to an identity passed through 
            #self._dec_mu            = self._dec_inp_mu 
            #self._dec_var_log       = self._dec_inp_var_log 
            self._dec_mu            = Activation('linear',name='dc_mu')(self._dec_inp_mu) 
            self._dec_var_log       = Activation('linear', name='dc_var')(self._dec_inp_var_log) 

        # Here we use the tensor shape info from the Encoder          
        x = Dense(np.prod(self._shape_before_flattening))(self._decoder_inp_z)
        x = Reshape(self._shape_before_flattening)(x)

        # The inverse CNN
        for i in range(self.n_layers_decoder):
            conv_t_layer = Conv2DTranspose(
                filters = self.decoder_conv_t_filters[i]
                , kernel_size = self.decoder_conv_t_kernel_size[i]
                , strides = self.decoder_conv_t_strides[i]
                , padding = 'same' # Important ! Controls the shape of tensors during reconstruction
                                   # we want an image with the same resolution as the original input 
                , name = 'decoder_conv_t_' + str(i)
                )
            x = conv_t_layer(x)

            # Normalization and Activation 
            if i < self.n_layers_decoder - 1:
                # Also in the decoder: normalization before activation  
                if self.use_batch_norm:
                    x = BatchNormalization()(x)
                
                # Choice of activation function
                if self.act == 0:
                    x = LeakyReLU()(x)
                elif self.act == 1:
                    x = ReLU()(x)
                elif self.act == 2: 
                    #x = self.selu_scale * ELU(alpha=self.selu_alpha)(x)
                    x = Activation('selu')(x)
                
                # Adaptions to SELU requirements 
                if self.use_dropout:
                    if self.act == 2: 
                        x = AlphaDropout(rate = 0.25)(x)
                    else:
                        x = Dropout(rate = 0.25)(x)
                
            # Last layer => Sigmoid output 
            # => This requires s<pre style="padding:8px; height: 400px; overflow:auto;">caled input => Division of pixel values by 255
            else:
                x = Activation('sigmoid', name='dc_reco')(x)

        # Output tensor => a scaled image 
        self._decoder_output = x

        # The Decoder model 
        # solution_type == 0/2/3: Just the decoded input 
        if self.solution_type == 0 or self.solution_type == 2 or self.solution_type == 3: 
            self.decoder = Model(self._decoder_inp_z, self._decoder_output, name="decoder")
        
        # solution_type == 1: The decoded tensor plus the transferred tensors mu and log_var a for the variational distribution 
        if self.solution_type == 1: 
            self.decoder = Model([self._decoder_inp_z, self._dec_inp_mu, self._dec_inp_var_log], 
                                 [self._decoder_output, self._dec_mu, self._dec_var_log], name="decoder")

Changes to the methods _build_VAE for building the VAE model

Our VAE model now is set up with the help of the __init__() method of our new class VAE. We just have to supplement the object created by MyVariationalAutoencoder.

Modified code of _build_VAE() of class MyVariationalAutoencoder

    def _build_VAE(self):     
        ''' Your documentation '''
        
        # Solution with train_step() and GradientTape(): Control is transferred to class VAE  
        if self.solution_type == 3:
            self.model = VAE(self)   # Here parameter "self" provides a reference to an instance of MyVariationalAutoencoder  
            self.model.summary()
        
        # Solutions with layer.add_loss or model.add_loss() 
        if self.solution_type == 0 or self.solution_type == 2:
            model_input  = self._encoder_input
            model_output = self.decoder(self._encoder_output)
            self.model = Model(model_input, model_output, name="vae")

        # Solution with transfer of data from the Encoder to the Decoder output layer
        if self.solution_type == 1: 
            enc_out      = self.encoder(self._encoder_input)
            dc_reco, dc_mu, dc_var = self.decoder(enc_out)
            # We organize the output and later association of cost functions and metrics via a dictionary 
            mod_outputs = {'vae_out_main': dc_reco, 'vae_out_mu': dc_mu, 'vae_out_var': dc_var}
            self.model = Model(inputs=self._encoder_input, outputs=mod_outputs, name="vae")

Note that we keep the resulting model within the object for class MyVariationalAutoencoder. See the Jupyter cells in my next post.

Changes to the method compile_myVAE()

The modification of the function compile_myVAE is simple

    def compile_myVAE(self, learning_rate):

        # Optimizer
        # ~~~~~~~~~ 
        optimizer = Adam(learning_rate=learning_rate)
        # save the learning rate for possible intermediate output to files 
        self.learning_rate = learning_rate
        
        # Parameter "fact" will be used by the cost functions defined below to scale the KL loss relative to the BCE loss 
        fact = self.fact
        
        # Function for solution_type == 1
        # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
        @tf.function
        def mu_loss(y_true, y_pred):
            loss_mux = fact * tf.reduce_mean(tf.square(y_pred))
            return loss_mux
        
        @tf.function
        def logvar_loss(y_true, y_pred):
            loss_varx = -fact * tf.reduce_mean(1 + y_pred - tf.exp(y_pred))    
            return loss_varx

        # Function for solution_type == 2 
        # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        # We follow an approach described at  
        # https://www.tensorflow.org/api_docs/python/tf/keras/layers/Layer
        # NOTE: We can NOT use @tf.function here 
        def get_kl_loss(mu, log_var):
            kl_loss = -fact * tf.reduce_mean(1 + log_var - tf.square(mu) - tf.exp(log_var))
            return kl_loss


        # Required operations for solution_type==2 => model.add_loss()
        # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        res_kl = get_kl_loss(mu=self.mu, log_var=self.log_var)

        if self.solution_type == 2: 
            self.model.add_loss(res_kl)    
            self.model.add_metric(res_kl, name='kl', aggregation='mean')
        
        # Model compilation 
        # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        
        # Solutions with layer.add_loss or model.add_loss() 
        if self.solution_type == 0 or self.solution_type == 2: 
            if self.loss_type == 0: 
                self.model.compile(optimizer=optimizer, loss="binary_crossentropy",
                                   metrics=[tf.keras.metrics.BinaryCrossentropy(name='bce')])
            if self.loss_type == 1: 
                self.model.compile(optimizer=optimizer, loss="mse",
                                   metrics=[tf.keras.metrics.MSE(name='mse')])
        
        # Solution with transfer of data from the Encoder to the Decoder output layer
        if self.solution_type == 1: 
            if self.loss_type == 0: 
                self.model.compile(optimizer=optimizer
                                   , loss={'vae_out_main':'binary_crossentropy', 'vae_out_mu':mu_loss, 'vae_out_var':logvar_loss} 
                                   #, metrics={'vae_out_main':tf.keras.metrics.BinaryCrossentropy(name='bce'), 'vae_out_mu':mu_loss, 'vae_out_var': logvar_loss }
                                   )
            if self.loss_type == 1: 
                self.model.compile(optimizer=optimizer
                                   , loss={'vae_out_main':'mse', 'vae_out_mu':mu_loss, 'vae_out_var':logvar_loss} 
                                   #, metrics={'vae_out_main':tf.keras.metrics.MSE(name='mse'), 'vae_out_mu':mu_loss, 'vae_out_var': logvar_loss }
                                   )
       
        # Solution with train_step() and GradientTape(): Control is transferred to class VAE  
        if self.solution_type == 3:
            self.model.compile(optimizer=optimizer)

Note the adaptions to the new parameter “loss_type” which we have added to the __init__()-function!

Changes to the method train_myVAE() – inclusion of a dataflow “generator

It gets a bit more complicated for the function “train_myVAE()”. The reason is that we use the opportunity to include the output of so called generators which create limited batches on the fly from disc or memory.

Such a generator is very useful if you have to handle datasets which you cannot get into the VRAM of your video card. A typical case might be the Celeb A dataset for older graphics cards as mine.

In such a case we provide a dataflow to the function. The batches in this data flow are continuously created as needed and handed over to Tensorflows data processing on the graphics card. So, “x_train” as an input variable must not be taken literally in this case! It is replaced by the generator’s dataflow then. See the code for the Jupyter cells in the next post.

In addition we prepare for cases where we have to provide target data to compare the input data “x_train” to which deviate from each other. Typical cases are the application of AEs/VAEs for denoising or recolorization.

    # Function to initiate training 
    # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    def train_myVAE(self, x_train, x_target=None
                    , b_use_generator   = False 
                    , b_target_ne_train = False
                    , batch_size = 32
                    , epochs = 2
                    , initial_epoch = 0, 
                    t_mu=None, 
                    t_logvar=None 
                    ):

        ''' 
        @note: Sometimes x_target MUST be provided - e.g. for Denoising, Recolorization 
        @note: x_train will come as a dataflow in case of a generator 
        '''

        # cax = ProgbarLogger(count_mode='samples', stateful_metrics=None)
        
        class MyPrinterCallback(tf.keras.callbacks.Callback):
            # def on_train_batch_begin(self, batch, logs=None):
            #     # Do something on begin of training batch
        
            def on_epoch_end(self, epoch, logs=None):
                # Get overview over available keys 
                #keys = list(logs.keys())
                print("\nEPOCH: {}, Total Loss: {:8.6f}, // reco loss: {:8.6f}, mu Loss: {:8.6f}, logvar loss: {:8.6f}".format(epoch, 
                      logs['loss'], logs['decoder_loss'], logs['decoder_1_loss'], logs['decoder_2_loss'] 
                                            ))
                print()
                #print('EPOCH: {}, Total Loss: {}'.format(epoch, logs['loss']))
                #print('EPOCH: {}, metrics: {}'.format(epoch, logs['metrics']))
        
            def on_epoch_begin(self, epoch, logs=None):
                print('-'*50)
                print('STARTING EPOCH: {}'.format(epoch))
                
        if not b_target_ne_train : 
            x_target = x_train

        # Data are provided from tensors in the Video RAM 
        if not b_use_generator: 

            # Solutions with layer.add_loss or model.add_loss() 
            # Solution with train_step() and GradientTape(): Control is transferred to class VAE  
            if self.solution_type == 0 or self.solution_type == 2 or self.solution_type == 3: 
                self.model.fit(     
                    x_train
                    , x_target
                    , batch_size = batch_size
                    , shuffle = True
                    , epochs = epochs
                    , initial_epoch = initial_epoch
                )
            
            # Solution with transfer of data from the Encoder to the Decoder output layer
            if self.solution_type == 1: 
                self.model.fit(     
                    x_train
                    , {'vae_out_main': x_target, 'vae_out_mu': t_mu, 'vae_out_var':t_logvar}
    #               also working  
    #                , [x_train, t_mu, t_logvar] # we provide some dummy tensors here  
                    , batch_size = batch_size
                    , shuffle = True
                    , epochs = epochs
                    , initial_epoch = initial_epoch
                    #, verbose=1
                    , callbacks=[MyPrinterCallback()]
                )
    
        # If data are provided as a batched dataflow from a generator - e.g. for Celeb A 
        else: 

            # Solution with transfer of data from the Encoder to the Decoder output layer
            if self.solution_type == 1: 
                print("We have no solution yet for solution_type==1 and generators !")
                sys.exit()

            # Solutions with layer.add_loss or model.add_loss() 
            # Solution with train_step() and GradientTape(): Control is transferred to class VAE  
            if self.solution_type == 0 or self.solution_type == 2 or self.solution_type == 3: 
                self.model.fit(     
                    x_train   # coming as a batched dataflow from the outside generator - no batch size required here 
                    , shuffle = True
                    , epochs = epochs
                    , initial_epoch = initial_epoch
                )

As I have not tested a solution for solution_type==1 and generators, yet, I leave the writing of a working code to the reader. Sorry, I did not find the time for experiments. Presently, I use generators only in combination with the add_loss() based solutions and the solution based on train_step() and GradientTape().

Note also that if we use generators they must take care for a flow of target data to. As said: You must not take “x_train” literally in the case of generators. It is more of a continuously created “dataflow” of batches then – both for the training’s input and target data.

Conclusion

In this post I have outlined how we can use the methods train_step() and the tape-context of Tensorflows GradientTape() to control loss contributions and their gradients. Though done for the specific case of the KL-loss of a VAE the general approach should have become clear.

I have added a new class to create a Keras model from a pre-constructed Encoder and Decoder. For convenience reasons we still create the layer structure with our old class “MyVariationalAutoencoder(). But we switch control then to a new instance of a class representing a child class of Keras’ Model. This class uses customized versions of train_step() and GradientTape().

I have added some more flexibility in addition: We can now include a dataflow generator for input data (as images) which do not fit into the VRAM (Video RAM) of our graphics card but into the PC’s standard RAM. We can also switch to MSE for reconstruction losses instead of BCE.

The task of the KL-loss is to compress the data distribution in the latent space and normalize the distribution around certain feature centers there. In the next post
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – IX – taming Celeb A by resizing the images and using a generator
we apply this to images of faces. We shall use the “Celeb A” dataset for this purpose. We are going to see that the scaling factor of the KL loss in this case has to be chosen rather big in comparison to simple cases like MNIST. We will also see that chosing a high dimension of the latent space does not really help to create a reasonable face from statistically chosen points in the latent space.

And before I forget it:
Ceterum Censeo: The worst living fascist and war criminal living today is the Putler. He must be isolated at all levels, be denazified and imprisoned. Long live a free and democratic Ukraine!

 

Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – VI – KL loss via tensor transfer and multiple output

I continue with my series on options of how to handle the KL loss in Variational Autoencoders [VAEs] in a Tensorflow 2 environment with eager execution:

Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – I – some basics
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – II – an Autoencoder with binary-crossentropy loss
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – III – problems with the KL loss and eager execution
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – IV – simple rules to avoid problems with eager execution
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – V – a customized Encoder layer for the KL loss

In the last post we delegated the KL loss calculation to a special customized layer of the Encoder. The layer directly followed two Dense layers which produced the tensors for

  • the mean values mu
  • and the logarithms of the variances log_var

of statistical standard distributions for z-points in the latent space. (Keep in mind that we have one mu and log_var for each sample. The KL loss function has a compactification impact on the z-point distribution as a whole and a normalization effect regarding the distribution around each z-point.)

The layer centered approach for the KL loss proved to be both elegant and fast in combination with Tensorflow 2. And it fits very well to the way we build ANNs with Keras.

In the present post I focus on a different and more complicated strategy: We shall couple the Encoder and the Decoder by multi-output and multi-input interfaces to transfer mu and log_var tensors to the output side of our VAE model. And then we will calculate the KL loss by using a Keras standard mechanism for costs related to multiple output channels:

We can define a standardized customizable cost function per output channel (= per individual output tensor). Such a Keras cost function accepts two standard input variables: a predicted output tensor for the output channel and a related tensor with true values.

Such costs will automatically be added up to get a total loss and they will be subject to automatic error back propagation under eager execution conditions. However, to use this mechanism requires to transport KL related tensors to the Decoder’s output side and to split the KL loss into components.

The approach is a bit of an overkill to handle the KL loss. But it will also sheds a light on

  • multi-in- and multi-output models
  • multi-loss models
  • and a transfer of tensors between to co-working neural nets.

Therefore the approach is interesting beyond VAE purposes.

Below I will first explain some more details of the present strategy. Afterward we need to find out how to handle standard customized Keras cost-functions for the KL loss contributions and the main loss. Furthermore we have to deal with reasonable output for the different loss terms during the training epochs. A performance comparison will show that the solution – though complicated – is a fast one.

The strategy in more details: A transfer variational KL tensors from the Encoder to the Decoder

First a general reminder: During training of a Keras model we have to guarantee a correct calculation of partial derivatives of losses with respect to trainable parameters (weights) according to the chain rule. The losses and related tensors themselves depend on matrix operations involving the layers’ weights and activation functions. So the chain rule has to be applied along all paths through the network. With eager execution all required operations and tensors must already be totally clear during a forward pass to the layers. We saw this already with the solution approach which we discussed in

Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow 2.8 – IV – simple rules to avoid problems with eager execution

This means that relevant tensors must explicitly be available whenever derivatives shall be handled or pre-defined. This in turn means: When we want to calculate cost contributions after the definition of the full VAE model then we must transfer all required tensors down the line. Wth the functional Keras API we could use them by a direct Python reference to a layer. The alternative is to use them as explicit output of our VAE-model.

The strategy of this post is basically guided by a general Keras rule:

A personally customized cost function which can effortlessly be used in the compile()-statement for a Keras model in an eager execution environment should have a standard interface given by

cost_function( y_true, y_pred )

With exactly these two tensors as parameters – and nothing else!
See https://keras.io/api/losses/#creating-custom-losses. Such a function can be used for each of the multiple outputs of a Keras model.

One reason for this strict rule is that with eager execution the dependence of any function on input variables (tensors) must explicitly be defined via the function’s interface. For a standardized interface of a customizable model’s cost function the necessary steps can be generalized. The advantage of invoking cost functions with standardized interfaces for multiple output channels is, of course, the ease of use.

In the case of an Autoencoder the dominant predicted output is the (reconstructed) output tensor calculated from a z-point by the Decoder. By a comparison of this output tensor (e.g. a reconstructed image) with the original input tensor of the Encoder (e.g. an original image) a value for the binary crossentropy loss can be calculated. We extend this idea about output tensors of the VAE model now to the KL related tensors:

When you look at the KL loss definition in the previous posts with respect to mu and log_var tensors of the Encoder

kl_loss = -0.5e-4 * tf.reduce_mean(1 + log_var - tf.square(mu) - tf.exp(log_var))

you see that we can split it in log_var- and mu-dependent terms. If we could transfer the mu and log_var tensors from the Encoder part to the Decoder part of a VAE we could use these tensors as explicit output of the VAE-model and thus as input for the simple standardized Keras loss functions. Without having to take any further care of eager execution requirements …

So: Why not use

  • a multiple-output model for the Encoder, which then provides z-points plus mu and log_var tensors,
  • a multiple-input, multiple-output model for the Decoder, which then accepts the multiple output tensors of the Encoder as input and provides a reconstruction tensor plus the mu and log_var tensors as multiple outputs
  • and simple customizable Keras cost-functions in the compile() statement for the VAE-model with each function handling one of the VAE’s (= Decoder’s) multiple outputs afterward?

Changes to the class MyVariationalAutoencoder

In the last post I have already described a class which handles all model-setup operations. We are keeping the general structure of the class – but we allow now for options in various methods to realize a different solution based on our present strategy. We shall use the input variable “solution_type” to the __init__() function for controlling the differences. The __init__() function itself can remain as it was defined in the last post.

Changes to the Encoder

We change the method to build the encoder of the class “MyVariationalAutoencoder” in the following way:

    # Method to build the Encoder
    # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
    def _build_enc(self, solution_type = -1, fact=-1.0):

        # Checking whether "fact" and "solution_type" for the KL loss shall be overwritten
        if fact < 0:
            fact = self.fact  
        if solution_type < 0:
            solution_type = self.solution_type
        else: 
            self.solution_type = solution_type
        
        # Preparation: We later need a function to calculate the z-points in the latent space 
        # The following function will be used by an eventual Lambda layer of the Encoder 
        def z_point_sampling(args):
            '''
            A point in the latent space is calculated statistically 
            around an optimized mu for each sample 
            '''
            mu, log_var = args # Note: These are 1D tensors !
            epsilon = B.random_normal(shape=B.shape(mu), mean=0., stddev=1.)
            return mu + B.exp(log_var / 2) * epsilon

        
        # Input "layer"
        self._encoder_input = Input(shape=self.input_dim, name='encoder_input')

        # Initialization of a running variable x for individual layers 
        x = self._encoder_input

        # Build the CNN-part with Conv2D layers 
        # Note that stride>=2 reduces spatial resolution without the help of pooling layers 
        for i in range(self.n_layers_encoder):
            conv_layer = Conv2D(
                filters = self.encoder_conv_filters[i]
                , kernel_size = self.encoder_conv_kernel_size[i]
                , strides = self.encoder_conv_strides[i]
                , padding = 'same'  # Important ! Controls the shape of the layer tensors.    
                , name = 'encoder_conv_' + str(i)
                )
            x = conv_layer(x)
            
            # The "normalization" should be done ahead of the "activation" 
            if self.use_batch_norm:
                x = BatchNormalization()(x)

            # Selection of activation function (out of 3)      
            if self.act == 0:
                x = LeakyReLU()(x)
            elif self.act == 1:
                x = ReLU()(x)
            elif self.act == 2: 
                # RMO: Just use the Activation layer to use SELU with predefined (!) parameters 
                x = Activation('selu')(x) 

            # Fulfill some SELU requirements 
            if self.use_dropout:
                if self.act == 2: 
                    x = AlphaDropout(rate = 0.25)(x)
                else:
                    x = Dropout(rate = 0.25)(x)

        # Last multi-dim tensor shape - is later needed by the decoder 
        self._shape_before_flattening = B.int_shape(x)[1:]

        # Flattened layer before calculating VAE-output (z-points) via 2 special layers 
        x = Flatten()(x)
        
        # "Variational" part - create 2 Dense layers for a statistical distribution of z-points  
        self.mu      = Dense(self.z_dim, name='mu')(x)
        self.log_var = Dense(self.z_dim, name='log_var')(x)

        if solution_type == 0: 
            # Customized layer for the calculation of the KL loss based on mu, var_log data
            # We use a customized layer according to a class definition  
            self.mu, self.log_var = My_KL_Layer()([self.mu, self.log_var], fact=fact)

        # Layer to provide a z_point in the Latent Space for each sample of the batch 
        self._encoder_output = Lambda(z_point_sampling, name='encoder_output')([self.mu, self.log_var])

        # The Encoder Model 
        # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        # With KL -layer
        if solution_type == 0: 
            self.encoder = Model(self._encoder_input, self._encoder_output)
        
         # With transfer solution => Multiple outputs 
        if solution_type == 1: 
            self.encoder = Model(inputs=self._encoder_input, outputs=[self._encoder_output, self.mu, self.log_var], name="encoder")
            # Other option 
            #self.enc_inputs = {'mod_ip': self._encoder_input}
            #self.encoder = Model(inputs=self.enc_inputs, outputs=[self._encoder_output, self.mu, self.log_var], name="encoder")

For our present approach those parts are relevant which depend on the condition “solution_type == 1”.

Hint: Note that we could have used a dictionary to describe the input to the Encoder. In more complex models this may be reasonable to achieve formal consistency with the multiple outputs of the VAE-model which will often be described by a dictionary. In addition the losses and metrics of the VAE-model will also be handled by dictionaries. By the way: The outputs as well the respective cost and metric assignments of a Keras model must all be controlled by the same class of a Python enumerator.

The Encoder’s multi-output is described by a Python list of 3 tensors: The encoded z-point vectors (length: z_dim!), the mu- and the log_var 1D-tensors (length: z_dim!). (Note that the full shape of all tensors also depends on the batch-size during training where these tensors are of rank 2.) We can safely use a list here as we do not couple this output directly with VAE loss functions or metrics controlled by dictionaries. We use dictionaries only in the output definitions of the VAE model itself.

Changes to the Decoder

Now we must realize the transfer of the mu and log_var tensors to the Decoder. We have to change the Decoder into a multi-input model:

    # Method to build the Decoder
    # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
    def _build_dec(self):
 
        # 1st Input layer - aligned to the shape of z-points in the latent space = output[0] of the Encoder 
        self._decoder_inp_z = Input(shape=(self.z_dim,), name='decoder_input')
        
        # Additional Input layers for the KL tensors (mu, log_var) from the Encoder
        if self.solution_type == 1: 
            self._dec_inp_mu       = Input(shape=(self.z_dim), name='mu_input')
            self._dec_inp_var_log  = Input(shape=(self.z_dim), name='logvar_input')
            
            # We give the layers later used as output a name 
            # Each of the Activation layers below just corresponds to an identity passed through 
            self._dec_mu            = Activation('linear',name='dc_mu')(self._dec_inp_mu) 
            self._dec_var_log       = Activation('linear', name='dc_var')(self._dec_inp_var_log) 

        # Nxt we use the tensor shape info from the Encoder          
        x = Dense(np.prod(self._shape_before_flattening))(self._decoder_inp_z)
        x = Reshape(self._shape_before_flattening)(x)

        # The inverse CNN
        for i in range(self.n_layers_decoder):
            conv_t_layer = Conv2DTranspose(
                filters = self.decoder_conv_t_filters[i]
                , kernel_size = self.decoder_conv_t_kernel_size[i]
                , strides = self.decoder_conv_t_strides[i]
                , padding = 'same' # Important ! Controls the shape of tensors during reconstruction
                                   # we want an image with the same resolution as the original input 
                , name = 'decoder_conv_t_' + str(i)
                )
            x = conv_t_layer(x)

            # Normalization and Activation 
            if i < self.n_layers_decoder - 1:
                # Also in the decoder: normalization before activation  
                if self.use_batch_norm:
                    x = BatchNormalization()(x)
                
                # Choice of activation function
                if self.act == 0:
                    x = LeakyReLU()(x)
                elif self.act == 1:
                    x = ReLU()(x)
                elif self.act == 2: 
                    #x = self.selu_scale * ELU(alpha=self.selu_alpha)(x)
                    x = Activation('selu')(x)
                
                # Adaptions to SELU requirements 
                if self.use_dropout:
                    if self.act == 2: 
                        x = AlphaDropout(rate = 0.25)(x)
                    else:
                        x = Dropout(rate = 0.25)(x)
                
            # Last layer => Sigmoid output 
            # => This requires scaled input => Division of pixel values by 255
            else:
                x = Activation('sigmoid', name='dc_reco')(x)

        # Output tensor => a scaled image 
        self._decoder_output = x

        # The Decoder model 
        
        # solution_type == 0: Just the decoded input 
        if self.solution_type == 0: 
            self.decoder = Model(self._decoder_inp_z, self._decoder_output)
        
        # solution_type == 1: The decoded tensor plus 
        #                     plus the transferred tensors mu and log_var a for the variational distributions 
        if self.solution_type == 1: 
            self.decoder = Model([self._decoder_inp_z, self._dec_inp_mu, self._dec_inp_var_log], 
                                 [self._decoder_output, self._dec_mu, self._dec_var_log], name="decoder")

You see that the Decoder has evolved into a “multi-input, multi-output model” for “solution_type==1”.

Construction of the VAE model

Next we define the full VAE model. We want to organize its multiple outputs and align them with distinct loss functions and maybe also some metrics information. I find it clearer to do this via dictionaries, which refer to layer names in a concise way.

    # Function to build the full VAE
    # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
    def _build_VAE(self):     
        
        solution_type = self.solution_type
        
        if solution_type == 0:
            model_input  = self._encoder_input
            model_output = self.decoder(self._encoder_output)
            self.model = Model(model_input, model_output, name="vae")

        if solution_type == 1: 
            enc_out      = self.encoder(self._encoder_input)
            dc_reco, dc_mu, dc_var = self.decoder(enc_out)

            # We organize the output and later association of cost functions and metrics via a dictionary 
            mod_outputs = {'vae_out_main': dc_reco, 'vae_out_mu': dc_mu, 'vae_out_var': dc_var}
            self.model = Model(inputs=self._encoder_input, outputs=mod_outputs, name="vae")
            
            # Another option if we had defined a dictionary for the encoder input 
            #self.model = Model(inputs=self.enc_inputs, outputs=mod_outputs, name="vae")

Compilation and Costs

The next logical step is to define our cost contributions. I am going to do this as with the help of two sub-functions of a method leading to the compilation of the VAE-model.

    # Function to compile the full VAE
    # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
    def compile_myVAE(self, learning_rate):
        # Optimizer 
        optimizer = Adam(learning_rate=learning_rate)
        # save the learning rate for possible intermediate output to files 
        self.learning_rate = learning_rate
        
        # Parameter "fact" will be used by the cost functions defined below to scale the KL loss relative to the BCE loss 
        fact = self.fact
        
        #mu-dependent cost contributions to the KL loss  
        @tf.function
        def mu_loss(y_true, y_pred):
            loss_mux = fact * tf.reduce_mean(tf.square(y_pred))
            return loss_mux
        
        #log_var dependent cost contributions to the KL loss  
        @tf.function
        def logvar_loss(y_true, y_pred):
            loss_varx = -fact * tf.reduce_mean(1 + y_pred - tf.exp(y_pred))    
            return loss_varx
        
        # Model compilation 
        # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
        if self.solution_type == 0: 
            self.model.compile(optimizer=optimizer, loss="binary_crossentropy",
                               metrics=[tf.keras.metrics.BinaryCrossentropy(name='bce')])
        
        if self.solution_type == 1: 
            self.model.compile(optimizer=optimizer
                               , loss={'vae_out_main':'binary_crossentropy', 'vae_out_mu':mu_loss, 'vae_out_var':logvar_loss} 
                              #, metrics={'vae_out_main':tf.keras.metrics.BinaryCrossentropy(name='bce'), 'vae_out_mu':mu_loss, 'vae_out_var': logvar_loss }
                               )

The first interesting thing is that the statements inside the two cost functions ignore “y_true” completely. Unfortunately, a small test shows that we nevertheless must provide some reasonable dummy tensors here. “None” is NOT working in this case.

The dictionary organizes the different costs and their relation to the three output channels of our VAE-model. I have included the metrics as a comment for the moment. It would only produce double output and consume a bit of performance.

A method for training and fit()

To enable training we use the following function:

    def train_myVAE(self, x_train, batch_size, epochs, initial_epoch = 0, t_mu=None, t_logvar=None ):

        if self.solution_type == 0: 
            self.model.fit(     
                x_train
                , x_train
                , batch_size = batch_size
                , shuffle = True
                , epochs = epochs
                , initial_epoch = initial_epoch
            )
        if self.solution_type == 1: 
            self.model.fit(     
                x_train
                # , [x_train, t_mu, t_logvar] # we provide some dummy tensors here  
                , {'vae_out_main': x_train, 'vae_out_mu': t_mu, 'vae_out_var':t_logvar}
                , batch_size = batch_size
                , shuffle = True
                , epochs = epochs
                , initial_epoch = initial_epoch
            )

You may wonder what the “t_mu” and “t_log_var” stand for. These are the dummy tensors which have to provide to the cost functions. The fit() function gets “x_train” as the model’s input. The tensors “y_pred”, for which we optimize, are handed over to the three loss functions by

{ 'vae_out_main': x_train, 'vae_out_mu': t_mu, 'vae_out_var':t_logvar}

Again, I have organized the correct association to each output and loss contribution via a dictionary.

Testing

We can use the same Jupyter notebook with almost the same cells as in my last post V. An adaption is only required for the cells starting the training.

I build a “vae” object (which can later be used for the MNIST dataset) by

Cell 6

from my_AE_code.models.MyVAE_2 import MyVariationalAutoencoder

z_dim = 2
vae = MyVariationalAutoencoder(
    input_dim = (28,28,1)
    , encoder_conv_filters = [32,64,128]
    , encoder_conv_kernel_size = [3,3,3]
    , encoder_conv_strides = [1,2,2]
    , decoder_conv_t_filters = [64,32,1]
    , decoder_conv_t_kernel_size = [3,3,3]
    , decoder_conv_t_strides = [2,2,1]
    , z_dim = z_dim
    , solution_type = 1  # now we must provide the solution type - here the solution with KL tensor Transfer   
    , act   = 0
    , fact  = 1.e-3
)

Afterwards I use the Jupyter cells presented in my last post to build the Encoder, the Decoder and then the full VAE-model. For z_dim = 2 the summary outputs for the models now look like:

Encoder

Model: "encoder"
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
 Layer (type)                   Output Shape         Param #     Connected to                     
==================================================================================================
 encoder_input (InputLayer)     [(None, 28, 28, 1)]  0           []                               
                                                                                                  
 encoder_conv_0 (Conv2D)        (None, 28, 28, 32)   320         ['encoder_input[0][0]']          
                                                                                                  
 leaky_re_lu_15 (LeakyReLU)     (None, 28, 28, 32)   0           ['encoder_conv_0[0][0]']         
                                                                                                  
 encoder_conv_1 (Conv2D)        (None, 14, 14, 64)   18496       ['leaky_re_lu_15[0][0]']         
                                                                                                  
 leaky_re_lu_16 (LeakyReLU)     (None, 14, 14, 64)   0           ['encoder_conv_1[0][0]']         
                                                                                                  
 encoder_conv_2 (Conv2D)        (None, 7, 7, 128)    73856       ['leaky_re_lu_16[0][0]']         
                                                                                                  
 leaky_re_lu_17 (LeakyReLU)     (None, 7, 7, 128)    0           ['encoder_conv_2[0][0]']         
                                                                                                  
 flatten_3 (Flatten)            (None, 6272)         0           ['leaky_re_lu_17[0][0]']         
                                                                                                  
 mu (Dense)                     (None, 2)            12546       ['flatten_3[0][0]']              
                                                                                                  
 log_var (Dense)                (None, 2)            12546       ['flatten_3[0][0]']              
                                                                                                  
 encoder_output (Lambda)        (None, 2)            0           ['mu[0][0]',                     
                                                                  'log_var[0][0]']                
                                                                                                  
==================================================================================================
Total params: 117,764
Trainable params: 117,764
Non-trainable params: 0
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Decoder

Model: "decoder"
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
 Layer (type)                   Output Shape         Param #     Connected to                     
==================================================================================================
 decoder_input (InputLayer)     [(None, 2)]          0           []                               
                                                                                                  
 dense_4 (Dense)                (None, 6272)         18816       ['decoder_input[0][0]']          
                                                                                                  
 reshape_4 (Reshape)            (None, 7, 7, 128)    0           ['dense_4[0][0]']                
                                                                                                  
 decoder_conv_t_0 (Conv2DTransp  (None, 14, 14, 64)  73792       ['reshape_4[0][0]']              
 ose)                                                                                             
                                                                                                  
 leaky_re_lu_23 (LeakyReLU)     (None, 14, 14, 64)   0           ['decoder_conv_t_0[0][0]']       
                                                                                                  
 decoder_conv_t_1 (Conv2DTransp  (None, 28, 28, 32)  18464       ['leaky_re_lu_23[0][0]']         
 ose)                                                                                             
                                                                                                  
 leaky_re_lu_24 (LeakyReLU)     (None, 28, 28, 32)   0           ['decoder_conv_t_1[0][0]']       
                                                                                                  
 decoder_conv_t_2 (Conv2DTransp  (None, 28, 28, 1)   289         ['leaky_re_lu_24[0][0]']         
 ose)                                                                                             
                                                                                                  
 mu_input (InputLayer)          [(None, 2)]          0           []                               
                                                                                                  
 logvar_input (InputLayer)      [(None, 2)]          0           []                               
                                                                                                  
 dc_reco (Activation)           (None, 28, 28, 1)    0           ['decoder_conv_t_2[0][0]']       
                                                                                                  
 dc_mu (Activation)             (None, 2)            0           ['mu_input[0][0]']               
                                                                                                  
 dc_var (Activation)            (None, 2)            0           ['logvar_input[0][0]']           
                                                                                                  
==================================================================================================
Total params: 111,361
Trainable params: 111,361
Non-trainable params: 0
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

VAE-model

Model: "vae"
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
 Layer (type)                   Output Shape         Param #     Connected to                      height: 200px; overflow:auto;
==================================================================================================
 encoder_input (InputLayer)     [(None, 28, 28, 1)]  0           []                               
                                                                                                  
 encoder (Functional)           [(None, 2),          117764      ['encoder_input[0][0]']          
                                 (None, 2),                                                       
                                 (None, 2)]                                                       
                                                                                                  
 model_3 (Functional)           [(None, 28, 28, 1),  111361      ['encoder[0][0]',                
                                 (None, 2),                       'encoder[0][1]',                
                                 (None, 2)]                       'encoder[0][2]']                
                                                                                                  
==================================================================================================
Total params: 229,125
Trainable params: 229,125
Non-trainable params: 0
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

We can use our modified class in a Jupyter notebook in the same way as I have discussed in the last . Of course you have to adapt the cells slightly; the parameter solution_type must be set to 1:

Training can be started with some dummy tensors for “y_true” handed over to our two special cost functions for the KL loss as:

Cell 11

BATCH_SIZE = 128
EPOCHS = 6
PRINT_EVERY_N_BATCHES = 100
INITIAL_EPOCH = 0

# Dummy tensors
t_mu     = tf.convert_to_tensor(np.zeros((60000, z_dim), dtype='float32')) 
t_logvar = tf.convert_to_tensor(np.ones((60000, z_dim), dtype='float32'))

vae.train_myVAE(     
    x_train[0:60000]
    , batch_size = BATCH_SIZE
    , epochs = EPOCHS
    , initial_epoch = INITIAL_EPOCH
   , t_mu = t_mu
   , t_logvar = t_logvar
)

Note that I have provided dummy tensors with a shape fitting the length of x_train (60,000) and the other dimension as z_dim! This, of course, costs some memory ….

As output we get:

Epoch 1/6
469/469 [==============================] - 14s 23ms/step - loss: 0.2625 - decoder_loss: 0.2575 - decoder_1_loss: 0.0017 - decoder_2_loss: 0.0032
Epoch 2/6
469/469 [==============================] - 12s 25ms/step - loss: 0.2205 - decoder_loss: 0.2159 - decoder_1_loss: 0.0013 - decoder_2_loss: 0.0032
Epoch 3/6
469/469 [==============================] - 11s 22ms/step - loss: 0.2137 - decoder_loss: 0.2089 - decoder_1_loss: 0.0014 - decoder_2_loss: 0.0034
Epoch 4/6
469/469 [==============================] - 11s 23ms/step - loss: 0.2100 - decoder_loss: 0.2050 - decoder_1_loss: 0.0013 - decoder_2_loss: 0.0037
Epoch 5/6
469/469 [==============================] - 10s 22ms/step - loss: 0.2072 - decoder_loss: 0.2021 - decoder_1_loss: 0.0013 - decoder_2_loss: 0.0039
Epoch 6/6
469/469 [==============================] - 10s 22ms/step - loss: 0.2049 - decoder_loss: 0.1996 - decoder_1_loss: 0.0013 - decoder_2_loss: 0.0041

Heureka, our complicated setup works!
And note: It is fast! Just compare the later epoch times to the ones we got in the last post. 10 ms compared to 11 ms per epoch!

Getting clearer names for the various losses?

One thing which is not convincing is the fact that Keras provides all losses with some standard (non-speaking) names. To make things clearer you could

  • either define some loss related metrics for which you define understandable names
  • or invoke a customized Callback and maybe stop the standard output.

With the metrics you will get double output – the losses with standard names and once again with you own names. And it will cost a bit of performance.

The standard output of Keras can be stopped by a parameter “verbose=0” of the train()-function. However, this will stop the progress bar, too.
I did not find any simple solution so far for this problem of customizing the output. If you do not need a progress bar then just set “verbose = 0” and use your own Callback to control the output. Note that you should first look at the available keys for logged output in a test run first. Below I give you the code for your own experiments:

    def train_myVAE(self, x_train, batch_size, epochs, initial_epoch = 0, t_mu=None, t_logvar=None ):
        
        class MyPrinterCallback(tf.keras.callbacks.Callback):
        
            # def on_train_batch_begin(self, batch, logs=None):
            #     # Do something on begin of training batch
        
            def on_epoch_end(self, epoch, logs=None):
                
                # Get overview over available keys 
                #keys = list(logs.keys())
                #print("End epoch {} of training; got log keys: {}".format(epoch, keys))

                print("\nEPOCH: {}, Total Loss: {:8.6f}, // reco loss: {:8.6f}, mu Loss: {:8.6f}, logvar loss: {:8.6f}".format(epoch, 
                                                logs['loss'], logs['decoder_loss'], logs['decoder_1_loss'], logs['decoder_2_loss'] 
                                            ))
                print()
        
            def on_epoch_begin(self, epoch, logs=None):
                print('-'*50)
                print('STARTING EPOCH: {}'.format(epoch))
                
        if self.solution_type == 0: 
            self.model.fit(     
                x_train
                , x_train
                , batch_size = batch_size
                , shuffle = True
                , epochs = epochs
                , initial_epoch = initial_epoch
            )
        
        if self.solution_type == 1: 
            self.model.fit(     
                x_train
                #Exp.: 
                , {'vae_out_main': x_train, 'vae_out_mu': t_mu, 'vae_out_var':t_logvar}
                , batch_size = batch_size
                , shuffle = True
                , epochs = epochs
                , initial_epoch = initial_epoch
                #, verbose=0
                , callbacks=[MyPrinterCallback()]
            )

Output example:

EPOCH: 2, Total Loss: 0.203891, // reco loss: 0.198510, mu Loss: 0.001242, logvar loss: 0.004139

469/469 [==============================] - 11s 23ms/step - loss: 0.2039 - decoder_loss: 0.1985 - decoder_1_loss: 0.0012 - decoder_2_loss: 0.0041

Output in the latent space

Just to show that the VAE is doing what is expected some out put from the latent space:

Conclusion

In this post we have used a standard option of Keras to define (eager execution compatible) loss functions. We transferred the KL loss related tensors “mu” and “logvar” to the Decoder and used them as different output tensors of our VAE-model. We needed to provide some dummy “y_true” tensors to the cost functions. The approach is a bit complicated, but it is working under eager execution conditions and it does not reduce performance.
It also provided us with some insights into coupled “multi-input/multi-output models” and cost handling for each of the outputs.

Still, this interesting approach appears as an overkill for handling the KL loss. In the next post

Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – VII – KL loss via model.add_loss()

I shall turn to a seemingly much lighter approach which will use the model.add_loss() functionality of Keras.

 
Ceterum censeo: The worst living fascist and war criminal today, who must be isolated, denazified and imprisoned, is the Putler.
 

Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – V – a customized Encoder layer for the KL loss

I continue with my series on the treatment of the KL loss of Variational Autoencoders in a Keras / TF2.8 environment:

Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – I – some basics
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – II – an Autoencoder with binary-crossentropy loss
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – III – problems with the KL loss and eager execution
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – IV – simple rules to avoid problems with eager execution

In the last post it became clear that it might be a good idea to delegate the KL loss calculation to a specific layer within the Encoder model. In this post I discuss the code for such a solution. I am going to encapsulate the construction of a suitable Keras model for the VAE in a class. The class will in further posts be supplemented by more methods for different approaches compatible with TF2.x and eager execution.

The code’s structure has been influenced by the work or books of several people which I want to name explicitly: D. Foster, F. Chollet and Louis Tiao. See the references in the last section of this post.

For the data sets I later want to work with both the Encoder and the Decoder parts of the VAE shall be based upon “convolutional networks” [CNNs] and respective Keras layers. Based on a suggestions of D. Foster and F. Chollet I use a classes interface to provide the parameters of all invoked Conv2D and Conv2DTranspose layers. But in contrast to D. Foster I also indicate how to include different activation functions (e.g. SeLU). In general I also will use the Keras functional API to define and add layers to the VAE model.

Imports to make Keras model and layer classes work

Below I discuss step by step parts of the code I put into a Python module to be used later in Jupyter notebooks. First we need to import some Python modules; note that you may have to add further statements which import personal modules from paths at your local machine:

import sys
import numpy as np
import os

import tensorflow as tf
from tensorflow.keras.layers import Layer, Input, Conv2D, Flatten, Dense, Conv2DTranspose, Reshape, Lambda, \
                                    Activation, BatchNormalization, ReLU, LeakyReLU, ELU, Dropout, AlphaDropout
from tensorflow.keras.models import Model
# to be consistent with my standard loading of the Keras backend in Jupyter notebooks:  
from tensorflow.keras import backend as B      
from tensorflow.keras.optimizers import Adam

A class for a special Encoder layer

Following the ideas discussed in my last post I now add a class which later allows for the setup of a special customized Keras layer in the Encoder model. This layer will calculate the KL loss for us. To be able to do so, the implementation interface “call()” receives a variable “inputs” which contains references to the mu and var_log layers of the Encoder (see the two last posts in this series).

class My_KL_Layer(Layer):
    '''
    @note: Returns the input layers ! Required to allow for z-point calculation
           in a final Lambda layer of the Encoder model    
    '''
    # Standard initialization of layers 
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        self.is_placeholder = True
        super(My_KL_Layer, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

    # The implementation interface of the Layer
    def call(self, inputs, fact = 4.5e-4):
        mu      = inputs[0]
        log_var = inputs[1]
        # Note: from other analysis we know that the backend applies tf.math.functions 
        # "fact" must be adjusted - for MNIST reasonable values are in the range of 0.65e-4 to 6.5e-4
        kl_mean_batch = - fact * B.mean(1 + log_var - B.square(mu) - B.exp(log_var))
        # We add the loss via the layer's add_loss() - it will be added up to other losses of the model     
        self.add_loss(kl_mean_batch, inputs=inputs)
        # We add the loss information to the metrics displayed during training 
        self.add_metric(kl_mean_batch, name='kl', aggregation='mean')
        return inputs

An important point is that a layer based on this class must return its input, namely the mu and var_log layers, for the z-point calculations in the final Encoder layer.

Note that we do not only add the loss to other losses of an eventual VAE model via the layer’s “add_loss()” method, but that we also ensure to get some information about the the size of the KL loss during training by adding the loss to the metrics.

A general class to setup a VAE build on CNNs for Encoder and Decoder

We now build a class to create the essential parts of a VAE. The class will provide the required flexibility and allow for future extensions comprising other TF2.x compatible solutions for KL loss calculations. (In this post we only use a customized layer to get the KL loss).
We start with the classes “__init__” function, which basically transfers saves parameters into class variables.

# The Main class 
# ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
class MyVariationalAutoencoder():
    '''
    Coding suggestions of D. Foster and F. Chollet were modified and extended by RMO 
    @version: V0.1, 25.04 
    @change:  added b_build_all 
    @version: V0.2, 08.05 
    @change:  Handling of the KL-loss via functions (partially not working)  
    @version: V0.3, 29.05 
    @change:  Handling of the KL-loss function via a customized Encoder layer 
    '''
    
    def __init__(self
        , input_dim                  # the shape of the input tensors (for MNIST (28,28,1)) 
        , encoder_conv_filters       # number of maps of the different Conv2D layers   
        , encoder_conv_kernel_size   # kernel sizes of the Conv2D layers 
        , encoder_conv_strides       # strides - here also used to reduce spatial resolution avoid pooling layers 
                                     # used instead of Pooling layers 
        , decoder_conv_t_filters     # number of maps in Con2DTranspose layers 
        , decoder_conv_t_kernel_size # kernel sizes of Conv2D Transpose layers  
        , decoder_conv_t_strides     # strides for Conv2dTranspose layers - inverts spatial resolution
        , z_dim                      # A good start is 16 or 24  
        , solution_type  = 0         # Which type of solution for the KL loss calculation ?
        , act            = 0         # Which type of activation function?  
        , fact           = 0.65e-4   # Factor for the KL loss (0.5e-4 < fact < 1.e-3is reasonable)    
        , use_batch_norm = False     # Shall BatchNormalization be used after Conv2D layers? 
        , use_dropout    = False     # Shall statistical dropout layers be used for tregularization purposes ? 
        , b_build_all    = False  # Added by RMO - full Model is build in 2 steps 
        ):
        
        '''
        Input: 
        The encoder_... and decoder_.... variables are Python lists,
        whose length defines the number of Conv2D and Conv2DTranspose layers 
        
        input_dim : Shape/dimensions of the input tensor - for MNIST (28,28,1) 
        encoder_conv_filters:     List with the number of maps/filters per Conv2D layer    
        encoder_conv_kernel_size: List with the kernel sizes for the Conv-Layers   
        encoder_conv_strides:     List with the strides used for the Conv-Layers   

        act :  determines activation function to use (0: LeakyRELU, 1:RELU , 2: SELU)
               !!!! NOTE: !!!!
               If SELU is used then the weight kernel initialization and the dropout layer need to be special   
               https://github.com/christianversloot/machine-learning-articles/blob/main/using-selu-with-tensorflow-and-keras.md
               AlphaDropout instead of Dropout + LeCunNormal for kernel initializer
        z_dim : dimension of the "latent_space"
        solution_type : Type of solution for KL loss calculation (0: Customized Encoder layer, 
                                                                  1: model.add_loss()
                                                                  2: definition of training step with Gradient.Tape()
        
        use_batch_norm = False   # True : We use BatchNormalization   
        use_dropout    = False   # True : We use dropout layers (rate = 0.25, see Encoder)
        b_build_all    = False   # True : Full VAE Model is build in 1 step; 
                                   False: Encoder, Decoder, VAE are build in separate steps   
        '''
        
        self.name = 'variational_autoencoder'

        # Parameters for Layers which define the Encoder and Decoder 
        self.input_dim                  = input_dim
        self.encoder_conv_filters       = encoder_conv_filters
        self.encoder_conv_kernel_size   = encoder_conv_kernel_size
        self.encoder_conv_strides       = encoder_conv_strides
        self.decoder_conv_t_filters     = decoder_conv_t_filters
        self.decoder_conv_t_kernel_size = decoder_conv_t_kernel_size
        self.decoder_conv_t_strides     = decoder_conv_t_strides
        
        self.z_dim = z_dim

        # Check param for activation function 
        if act < 0 or act > 2: 
            print("Range error: Parameter " + str(act) + " has unknown value ")  
            sys.exit()
        else:
            self.act = act 
        
        # Factor to scale the KL loss relative to the Binary Cross Entropy loss 
        self.fact = fact 
        
        # Check param for solution approach  
        if solution_type < 0 or solution_type > 2: 
            print("Range error: Parameter " + str(solution_type) + " has unknown value ")  
            sys.exit()
        else:
            self.solution_type = solution_type 

        self.use_batch_norm = use_batch_norm
        self.use_dropout    = use_dropout

        # Preparation of some variables to be filled later 
        self._encoder_input  = None  # receives the Keras object for the Input Layer of the Encoder 
        self._encoder_output = None  # receives the Keras object for the Output Layer of the Encoder 
        self.shape_before_flattening = None # info of the Encoder => is used by Decoder 
        self._decoder_input  = None  # receives the Keras object for the Input Layer of the Decoder
        self._decoder_output = None  # receives the Keras object for the Output Layer of the Decoder

        # Layers / tensors for KL loss 
        self.mu      = None # receives special Dense Layer's tensor for KL-loss 
        self.log_var = None # receives special Dense Layer's tensor for KL-loss 

        # Parameters for SELU - just in case we may need to use it somewhere 
        # https://keras.io/api/layers/activations/ see selu
        self.selu_scale = 1.05070098
        self.selu_alpha = 1.67326324

        # The number of Conv2D and Conv2DTranspose layers for the Encoder / Decoder 
        self.n_layers_encoder = len(encoder_conv_filters)
        self.n_layers_decoder = len(decoder_conv_t_filters)

        self.num_epoch = 0 # Intialization of the number of epochs 

        # A matrix for the values of the losses 
        self.std_loss  = tf.TensorArray(tf.float32, size=0, dynamic_size=True, clear_after_read=False)

        # We only build the whole AE-model if requested
        self.b_build_all = b_build_all
        if b_build_all:
            self._build_all()

Note that for the present post we (can) only use “solution_type = 0” !

A method to build the Encoder

The class shall provide a method to build the Encoder. For our present purposes including a customized layer based on the class “My_KL_Layer”. This layer just returns its input – namely the layers “mu” and “var_log” for the variational calculation of z-points, but it also calculates the KL loss which is added to other model losses.

    # Method to build the Encoder
    # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
    def _build_enc(self, solution_type = 0, fact=-1.0):
        '''
        Encoder 
        @summary: Method to build the Encoder part of the AE 
                  This will be a CNN defined by the parameters to __init__   
         
        @note:    For self.solution = 0, we add an extra layer to calculate the KL loss 
        @note:    The last layer uses a sigmoid activation to create the output 
                  This may not be compatible with some scalers applied to the input data (images)    
        '''       

        # Check whether "fact" for the KL loss shall be overwritten
        if fact < 0:
            fact = self.fact  
        
        # Preparation: We later need a function to calculate the z-points in the latent space 
        # this function will be used by an eventual Lambda layer of the Encoder 
        def z_point_sampling(args):
            '''
            A point in the latent space is calculated statistically 
            around an optimized mu for each sample 
            '''
            mu, log_var = args # Note: These are 1D tensors !
            epsilon = B.random_normal(shape=B.shape(mu), mean=0., stddev=1.)
            return mu + B.exp(log_var / 2) * epsilon

        
        # Input "layer"
        self._encoder_input = Input(shape=self.input_dim, name='encoder_input')

        # Initialization of a running variable x for individual layers 
        x = self._encoder_input

        # Build the CNN-part with Conv2D layers 
        # Note that stride>=2 reduces spatial resolution without the help of pooling layers 
        for i in range(self.n_layers_encoder):
            conv_layer = Conv2D(
                filters = self.encoder_conv_filters[i]
                , kernel_size = self.encoder_conv_kernel_size[i]
                , strides = self.encoder_conv_strides[i]
                , padding = 'same'  # Important ! Controls the shape of the layer tensors.    
                , name = 'encoder_conv_' + str(i)
                )
            x = conv_layer(x)
            
            # The "normalization" should be done ahead of the "activation" 
            if self.use_batch_norm:
                x = BatchNormalization()(x)

            # Selection of activation function (out of 3)      
            if self.act == 0:
                x = LeakyReLU()(x)
            elif self.act == 1:
                x = ReLU()(x)
            elif self.act == 2: 
                # RMO: Just use the Activation layer to use SELU with predefined (!) parameters 
                x = Activation('selu')(x) 

            # Fulfill some SELU requirements 
            if self.use_dropout:
                if self.act == 2: 
                    x = AlphaDropout(rate = 0.25)(x)
                else:
                    x = Dropout(rate = 0.25)(x)

        # Last multi-dim tensor shape - is later needed by the decoder 
        self._shape_before_flattening = B.int_shape(x)[1:]

        # Flattened layer before calculating VAE-output (z-points) via 2 special layers 
        x = Flatten()(x)
        
        # "Variational" part - create 2 Dense layers for a statistical distribution of z-points  
        self.mu      = Dense(self.z_dim, name='mu')(x)
        self.log_var = Dense(self.z_dim, name='log_var')(x)

        if solution_type == 0: 
            # Customized layer for the calculation of the KL loss based on mu, var_log data
            # We use a customized layer accoding to a class definition  
            self.mu, self.log_var = My_KL_Layer()([self.mu, self.log_var], fact=fact)
 
        # Layer to provide a z_point in the Latent Space for each sample of the batch 
        self._encoder_output = Lambda(z_point_sampling, name='encoder_output')([self.mu, self.log_var])

        # The Encoder Model 
        self.encoder = Model(self._encoder_input, self._encoder_output)

A method to build the Decoder

The following function should be self-evident; it reverses the Encoder’s operations and uses z-points of the latent space as input.

    # Method to build the Decoder
    # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
    def _build_dec(self):
        '''
        Decoder 
        @summary: Method to build the Decoder part of the AE 
                  Normally this will be a reverse CNN defined by the parameters to __init__   
        '''       

        # Input layer - aligned to the shape of the output layer 
        self._decoder_input = Input(shape=(self.z_dim,), name='decoder_input')

        # Here we use the tensor shape info from the Encoder          
        x = Dense(np.prod(self._shape_before_flattening))(self._decoder_input)
        x = Reshape(self._shape_before_flattening)(x)

        # The inverse CNN
        for i in range(self.n_layers_decoder):
            conv_t_layer = Conv2DTranspose(
                filters = self.decoder_conv_t_filters[i]
                , kernel_size = self.decoder_conv_t_kernel_size[i]
                , strides = self.decoder_conv_t_strides[i]
                , padding = 'same' # Important ! Controls the shape of tensors during reconstruction
                                   # we want an image with the same resolution as the original input 
                , name = 'decoder_conv_t_' + str(i)
                )
            x = conv_t_layer(x)

            # Normalization and Activation 
            if i < self.n_layers_decoder - 1:
                # Also in the decoder: normalization before activation  
                if self.use_batch_norm:
                    x = BatchNormalization()(x)
                
                # Choice of activation function
                if self.act == 0:
                    x = LeakyReLU()(x)
                elif self.act == 1:
                    x = ReLU()(x)
                elif self.act == 2: 
                    #x = self.selu_scale * ELU(alpha=self.selu_alpha)(x)
                    x = Activation('selu')(x)
                
                # Adaptions to SELU requirements 
                if self.use_dropout:
                    if self.act == 2: 
                        x = AlphaDropout(rate = 0.25)(x)
                    else:
                        x = Dropout(rate = 0.25)(x)
                
            # Last layer => Sigmoid output 
            # => This requires scaled input => Division of pixel values by 255
            else:
                x = Activation('sigmoid')(x)

        # Output tensor => a scaled image 
        self._decoder_output = x

        # The Decoder model 
        self.decoder = Model(self._decoder_input, self._decoder_output)

Note that we do not include any loss calculations in the Decoder model. The main loss – namely according to the “binary cross entropy” will later be added to the “fit()” method of the full Keras based VAE model.

The full VAE model

We have already created two Keras models for the Encoder and Decoder. We now combine them to the full VAE model and save this model in a variable of the object derived from our class.

    # Function to build the full AE
    # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    def _build_VAE(self):     
        model_input  = self._encoder_input
        model_output = self.decoder(self._encoder_output)
        self.model = Model(model_input, model_output, name="vae")

    # Function to build full AE in one step if requested
    # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    def _build_all(self):
        self._build_enc()
        self._build_dec()
        self._build_VAE()

Compilation

For our present solution with the customized layer for the KL loss we now provide a matching “compile()” function:

    # Function to compile VA-model with a KL-layer in the Encoder 
    # ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    def compile_for_KL_Layer(self, learning_rate):
        if self.solution_type != 0: 
            print("The compile_L() function is only compatible with solution_type = 0")
            sys.exit()
        self.learning_rate = learning_rate
        # Optimizer 
        optimizer = Adam(learning_rate=learning_rate)
        self.model.compile(optimizer=optimizer, loss="binary_crossentropy",
                           metrics=[tf.keras.metrics.BinaryCrossentropy(name='bce')])

This is the place where we include the main contribution to the loss – namely by a “binary cross-entropy” calculation with respect to the differences between the original input tensor top our model and its output tensor. We had to use the function BinaryCrossentropy(name=’bce’) to be able to give the respective output during training a short name. All in all we expect an output during training comprising:

  • the total loss
  • the contribution from the binary_crossentropy
  • the KL contribution

A method for training

We are almost finished. We just need a matching method for starting the training via calling the “fit()“-function of our Keras based VAE model:

    def train_model_with_KL_Layer(self, x_train, batch_size, epochs, initial_epoch = 0):
        self.model.fit(     
            x_train
            , x_train
            , batch_size = batch_size
            , shuffle = True
            , epochs = epochs
            , initial_epoch = initial_epoch
        )

Note that we called the same “x_train” batch of samples twice: The standard “y” output “labels” actually are the input samples (which is, of course, the core characteristic of AEs). We shuffle data during training.

Why use a special function of the class at all and not directly call fit() from Jupyter notebook cells?
Well, at this point we could include multiple other things as custom callbacks (e.g. for special output or model saving) and a scheduler. See e.g. the code of D. Foster at his Github site for variants. For the sake of briefness I skip these techniques in my post.

Jupyter cells to use our class

Let us see how we can use our carefully crafted class with a Jupyter notebook. As I personally gather Python modules (via Eclipse PyDev) in some special folders, I first have to add a path:

Cell 1:

import sys
# !!! ADAPT to YOUR needs !!!!! 
sys.path.append("/projects/GIT/ml_4/")
print(sys.path)

Of course, you must adapt this path to your personal situation.

The next cell contains module imports
Cell 2

import numpy as np
import time 
import os
import sklearn # could be used for scalers
import matplotlib as mpl
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.colors import ListedColormap
import matplotlib.patches as mpat 

# tensorflow and keras 
import tensorflow as tf
from tensorflow import keras as K
from tensorflow.python.keras import backend as B 
from tensorflow.keras import models
from tensorflow.keras import layers
from tensorflow.keras import regularizers
from tensorflow.keras import optimizers
from tensorflow.keras import metrics
from tensorflow.keras.datasets import mnist
from tensorflow.keras.optimizers import schedules
from tensorflow.keras.utils import to_categorical
from tensorflow.python.client import device_lib
from tensorflow.keras.datasets import mnist

# My VAE-class 
from my_AE_code.models.My_VAE import MyVariationalAutoencoder

I then suppress some warnings regarding my Nvidia card and list the available Cuda devices.

Cell 3


# Suppress some TF2 warnings on negative NUMA node number
# see https://www.programmerall.com/article/89182120793/
os.environ['TF_CPP_MIN_LOG_LEVEL'] = '3'  # or any {'0', '1', '2'}
tf.config.experimental.list_physical_devices()

We then control resource usage:
Cell 4

# Restrict to GPU and activate jit to accelerate 
# IMPORTANT NOTE: To change any of the following values you MUT restart the notebook kernel ! 
b_tf_CPU_only      = False   # we want to work on a GPU  
tf_limit_CPU_cores = 4 
tf_limit_GPU_RAM   = 2048

if b_tf_CPU_only: 
    tf.config.set_visible_devices([], 'GPU')   # No GPU, only CPU 
    # Restrict number of CPU cores
    tf.config.threading.set_intra_op_parallelism_threads(tf_limit_CPU_cores)
    tf.config.threading.set_inter_op_parallelism_threads(tf_limit_CPU_cores)
else: 
    gpus = tf.config.experimental.list_physical_devices('GPU')
    tf.config.experimental.set_virtual_device_configuration(gpus[0], 
    [tf.config.experimental.VirtualDeviceConfiguration(memory_limit = tf_limit_GPU_RAM)])

# JiT optimizer 
tf.config.optimizer.set_jit(True)

Let us load MNIST for test purposes:
Cell 5

def load_mnist():
    (x_train, y_train), (x_test, y_test) = mnist.load_data()

    x_train = x_train.astype('float32') / 255.
    x_train = x_train.reshape(x_train.shape + (1,))
    x_test = x_test.astype('float32') / 255.
    x_test = x_test.reshape(x_test.shape + (1,))

    return (x_train, y_train), (x_test, y_test)

(x_train, y_train), (x_test, y_test) = load_mnist()

Provide the VAE setup variables to our class:
Cell 6

z_dim = 2
vae = MyVariationalAutoencoder(
    input_dim = (28,28,1)
    , encoder_conv_filters = [32,64,128]
    , encoder_conv_kernel_size = [3,3,3]
    , encoder_conv_strides = [1,2,2]
    , decoder_conv_t_filters = [64,32,1]
    , decoder_conv_t_kernel_size = [3,3,3]
    , decoder_conv_t_strides = [2,2,1]
    , z_dim = z_dim
    , act   = 0
    , fact  = 5.e-4
)

Set up the Encoder:
Cell 7

# overwrite the KL fact from the class 
fact = 2.e-4 
vae._build_enc(fact=fact)
vae.encoder.summary()

Build the Decoder:
Cell 8

vae._build_dec()
vae.decoder.summary()

Build the VAE model:
Cell 9

vae._build_VAE()
vae.model.summary()

Compile
Cell 10

LEARNING_RATE = 0.0005
vae.compile_for_KL_Layer(LEARNING_RATE)

Train / fit the model to the training data
Cell 11

BATCH_SIZE = 128
EPOCHS = 6     # for real runs ca. 40 
INITIAL_EPOCH = 0
vae.train_model_with_KL_Layer(     
    x_train[0:60000]
    , batch_size = BATCH_SIZE
    , epochs = EPOCHS
    , initial_epoch = INITIAL_EPOCH
)

For the given parameters I got the following output on my old GTX960

Epoch 1/6
469/469 [==============================] - 12s 24ms/step - loss: 0.2613 - bce: 0.2589 - kl: 0.0024
Epoch 2/6
469/469 [==============================] - 12s 25ms/step - loss: 0.2174 - bce: 0.2159 - kl: 0.0015
Epoch 3/6
469/469 [==============================] - 11s 23ms/step - loss: 0.2100 - bce: 0.2085 - kl: 0.0015
Epoch 4/6
469/469 [==============================] - 11s 23ms/step - loss: 0.2057 - bce: 0.2042 - kl: 0.0015
Epoch 5/6
469/469 [==============================] - 11s 23ms/step - loss: 0.2034 - bce: 0.2019 - kl: 0.0015
Epoch 6/6
469/469 [==============================] - 11s 23ms/step - loss: 0.2019 - bce: 0.2004 - kl: 0.0015

So 11 secs for an epoch of 60,000 samples with batch-size = 128 is a reference point. Note that this is obviously faster than what we got for the solution discussed in the last post.

Just to give you an impression of other results:
For z_dim = 2, fact = 2.e-4 and 60 epochs I got something like the following data point distribution in the latent space:

I shall discuss more results – also for other test data sets – in future posts in this blog.

Conclusion

In this post we have build a class to set up a VAE based on an Encoder and a Decoder model with Conv2D and Conv2dTranspose layers. We delegated the calculation of the KL loss to a customized layer of the Encoder, whilst the main loss contribution was defined in form of a binary-crossentropy evaluation with the help of the fit()-function of the VAE model. All loss contributions were displayed as “metrics” elements during training. The presented solution is fully compatible with Tensorflow 2.8 and eager execution. It is in my opinion also elegant and very Keras oriented as all important operations are encapsulated in a continuous sequence of layers. We also found this to be a relatively fast solution.

In the next post of this series
Variational Autoencoder with Tensorflow – VI – KL loss via tensor transfer and multiple output
we are going to use our class to adapt an older suggestion of D.Foster to the requirements of TF2.8.

References

F. Chollet, Deep Learning mit Python und Keras, 2018, 1-te dt. Auflage, mitp Verlags GmbH & Co.KG, Frechen

D. Foster, “Generatives Deep Learning”, 2020, 1-te dt. Auflage, dpunkt Verlag, Heidelberg in Kooperation mit Media Inc.O’Reilly, ISBN 978-3-960009-128-8. See Kap. 3 and the VAE code published at
https://github.com/davidADSP/GDL_code/

Louis Tiao, “Implementing Variational Autoencoders in Keras: Beyond the Quickstart Tutorial”, 2017, http://louistiao.me/posts/implementing-variational-autoencoders-in-keras-beyond-the-quickstart-tutorial/

Recommendation: The article of L. Tiao is not only interesting regarding Keras modularity. I like it very much also for his mathematical depth. I highly recommend his article as a source of inspiration, especially with respect to alternative divergences. Please, also follow Tiao’s list of well selected literature references.

And before I forget it:
Ceterum censeo: The worst living fascist and war criminal today, who must be isolated, denazified and imprisoned, is the Putler.