Generalization Analysis of CNNs for Classification on Spheres

Deep learning based on deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) is extremely efficient in solving classification problems in speech recognition, computer vision, and many other fields. But there is no enough theoretical understanding about this topic, especially the generalization ability of the induced CNN algorithms. In this article, we develop some generalization analysis of a deep CNN algorithm for binary classification with data on spheres. An essential property of the classification problem is the lack of continuity or high smoothness of the target function associated with a convex loss function such as the hinge loss. This motivates us to consider the approximation of functions in the L_p space with 1 ≤ p ≤ ∞ . We provide rates of L_p -approximation when the approximated function lies in a Sobolev space and then present generalization bounds and learning rates for the excess misclassification error of the deep CNN classification algorithm. Our novel analysis is based on efficient cubature formulae on spheres and other tools from spherical analysis and approximation theory.