TW-YOLO: An Innovative Blood Cell Detection Model Based on Multi-Scale Feature Fusion

Abstract

As deep learning technology has progressed, automated medical image analysis is becoming ever more crucial in clinical diagnosis. However, due to the diversity and complexity of blood cell images, traditional models still exhibit deficiencies in blood cell detection. To address blood cell detection, we developed the TW-YOLO approach, leveraging multi-scale feature fusion techniques. Firstly, traditional CNN (Convolutional Neural Network) convolution has poor recognition capabilities for certain blood cell features, so the RFAConv (Receptive Field Attention Convolution) module was incorporated into the backbone of the model to enhance its capacity to extract geometric characteristics from blood cells. At the same time, utilizing the feature pyramid architecture of YOLO (You Only Look Once), we enhanced the fusion of features at different scales by incorporating the CBAM (Convolutional Block Attention Module) in the detection head and the EMA (Efficient Multi-Scale Attention) module in the neck, thereby improving the recognition ability of blood cells. Additionally, to meet the specific needs of blood cell detection, we designed the PGI-Ghost (Programmable Gradient Information-Ghost) strategy to finely describe the gradient flow throughout the process of extracting features, further improving the model’s effectiveness. Experiments on blood cell detection datasets such as BloodCell-Detection-Dataset (BCD) reveal that TW-YOLO outperforms other models by 2%, demonstrating excellent performance in the task of blood cell detection. In addition to advancing blood cell image analysis research, this work offers strong technical support for future automated medical diagnostics.