  The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has achieved great success in image
classification. The classification model can also be utilized at image or patch
level for many other applications, such as object detection and segmentation.
In this paper, we propose a whole-image CNN regression model, by removing the
full connection layer and training the network with continuous feature maps.
This is a generic regression framework that fits many applications. We
demonstrate this method through two tasks: simultaneous face detection &
segmentation, and scene saliency prediction. The result is comparable with
other models in the respective fields, using only a small scale network. Since
the regression model is trained on corresponding image / feature map pairs,
there are no requirements on uniform input size as opposed to the
classification model. Our framework avoids classifier design, a process that
may introduce too much manual intervention in model development. Yet, it is
highly correlated to the classification network and offers some in-deep review
of CNN structures.
