A systematic literature review of visual feature learning: deep learning techniques, applications, challenges and future directions

Visual Feature Learning (VFL) is a critical area of research in computer vision that involves the automatic extraction of features and patterns from images and videos. The applications of VFL are vast, including object detection and recognition, facial recognition, scene understanding, medical image analysis, and autonomous vehicles. In this paper, we propose to conduct extensive systematic literature review (SLR) on VFL based on deep learning algorithms. The paper conducted an SLR covering deep learning algorithms such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), Autoencoders, and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) including their variants. The review highlights the importance of VFL in computer vision and the limitations of traditional feature extraction techniques. Furthermore, it provides an in-depth analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of various deep learning algorithms for solving problems in VFL. The discussion of the applications of VFL provides an insight into the impact of VFL on various industries and domains. The review also analyzed the challenges faced by VFL, such as data scarcity and quality, overfitting, generalization, interpretability, and explainability. The discussion of future directions for VFL includes hybrid techniques, unsupervised feature learning, continual learning, attention-based models, and explainable AI. These techniques aim to address the challenges faced by VFL and improve the performance of the models. The systematic literature review concludes that VFL is a rapidly evolving field with the potential to transform many industries and domains. The review highlights the need for further research in VFL and emphasizes the importance of responsible use of VFL models in various applications. The review provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners in the field of computer vision, who can use these insights to enhance their work and ensure the responsible use of VFL models.