Invariance-based layer regularization for sound event detection

Experimental and theoretical evidences suggest that invariance constraints can improve the performance and generalization capabilities of a classification model. While invariance-based regularization has become part of the standard tool-belt of machine learning practitioners, this regularization is usually applied near the decision layers or at the end of the feature extracting layers of a deep classification network. However, the optimal placement of invariance constraints inside a deep classifier is yet an open question. In particular, it would be beneficial to link it to the structural properties of the network (e.g. its architecture), or its dynamical properties (e.g. the effectively used volume of its latent spaces). The purpose of this article is to initiate an investigation on these aspects. We use the experimental framework of the DCASE 2023 Task 4A challenge, which considers the training of a sound event classifier in a semi-supervised manner. We show that the optimal placement of invariance constraints improves the performance of the standard baseline for this task.