A challenge of deep‐learning‐based object detection for hair follicle dataset

Abstract

Background Deep‐learning object detection has been applied in various industries, including healthcare, to address hair loss. Methods In this paper, YOLOv5 object detection algorithm was used to detect hair follicles in a small and specific image dataset collected using a specialized camera on the scalp of individuals with different ages, regions, and genders. The performance of YOLOv5 was compared with other popular object detection models. Results YOLOv5 performed well in the detection of hair follicles, and the follicles were classified into five classes based on the number of hairs and the type of hair contained. In single‐class object detection experiments, a smaller batch size and the smallest YOLOv5s model achieved the best results, with an map of 0.8151. In multiclass object detection experiments, the larger YOLOv5l model was able to achieve the best results, and batch size affected the result of model training. Conclusion YOLOv5 is a promising algorithm for detecting hair follicles in a small and specific image dataset, and its performance is comparable to other popular object detection models. However, the challenges of small‐scale data and sample imbalance need to be addressed to improve the performance of target detection algorithms.