By utilizing hybrid quantum–classical neural networks (HNNs), this research aims to enhance the efficiency of image classification tasks. HNNs allow us to utilize quantum computing to solve machine learning problems, which can be highly power-efficient and provide significant computation speedup compared to classical operations. This is particularly relevant in sustainable applications where reducing computational resources and energy consumption is crucial. This study explores the feasibility of a novel architecture by leveraging quantum devices as the first layer of the neural network, which proved to be useful for scaling HNNs’ training process. Understanding the role of quanvolutional operations and how they interact with classical neural networks can lead to optimized model architectures that are more efficient and effective for image classification tasks. This research investigates the performance of HNNs across different datasets, including CIFAR100 and Satellite Images of Hurricane Damage by evaluating the performance of HNNs on these datasets in comparison with the performance of reference classical models. By evaluating the scalability of HNNs on diverse datasets, the study provides insights into their applicability across various real-world scenarios, which is essential for building sustainable machine learning solutions that can adapt to different environments. Leveraging transfer learning techniques with pre-trained models such as ResNet, EfficientNet, and VGG16 demonstrates the potential for HNNs to benefit from existing knowledge in classical neural networks. This approach can significantly reduce the computational cost of training HNNs from scratch while still achieving competitive performance. The feasibility study conducted in this research assesses the practicality and viability of deploying HNNs for real-world image classification tasks. By comparing the performance of HNNs with classical reference models like ResNet, EfficientNet, and VGG-16, this study provides evidence of the potential advantages of HNNs in certain scenarios. Overall, the findings of this research contribute to advancing sustainable applications of machine learning by proposing novel techniques, optimizing model architectures, and demonstrating the feasibility of adopting HNNs for real-world image classification problems. These insights can inform the development of more efficient and environmentally friendly machine learning solutions.
By utilizing hybrid quantum–classical neural networks (HNNs), this research aims to enhance the efficiency of image classification tasks. HNNs allow us to utilize quantum computing to solve machine learning problems, which can be highly power-efficient and provide significant computation speedup compared to classical operations. This is particularly relevant in sustainable applications where reducing computational resources and energy consumption is crucial. This study explores the feasibility of a novel architecture by leveraging quantum devices as the first layer of the neural network, which proved to be useful for scaling HNNs’ training process. Understanding the role of quanvolutional operations and how they interact with classical neural networks can lead to optimized model architectures that are more efficient and effective for image classification tasks. This research investigates the performance of HNNs across different datasets, including CIFAR100 and Satellite Images of Hurricane Damage by evaluating the performance of HNNs on these datasets in comparison with the performance of reference classical models. By evaluating the scalability of HNNs on diverse datasets, the study provides insights into their applicability across various real-world scenarios, which is essential for building sustainable machine learning solutions that can adapt to different environments. Leveraging transfer learning techniques with pre-trained models such as ResNet, EfficientNet, and VGG16 demonstrates the potential for HNNs to benefit from existing knowledge in classical neural networks. This approach can significantly reduce the computational cost of training HNNs from scratch while still achieving competitive performance. The feasibility study conducted in this research assesses the practicality and viability of deploying HNNs for real-world image classification tasks. By comparing the performance of HNNs with classical reference models like ResNet, EfficientNet, and VGG-16, this study provides evidence of the potential advantages of HNNs in certain scenarios. Overall, the findings of this research contribute to advancing sustainable applications of machine learning by proposing novel techniques, optimizing model architectures, and demonstrating the feasibility of adopting HNNs for real-world image classification problems. These insights can inform the development of more efficient and environmentally friendly machine learning solutions.
The article focuses on studying the effectiveness of two different Hybrid Neural Networks (HNNs) architectures for solving real-world image classification problems. The first approach investigated in the research is a hybridization technique that allows creation of HNN based on a classical neural network by replacing a number of hidden layers of the neural network with a variational quantum circuit, which allows to reduce the complexity of the classical part of the neural network and move part of computations to a quantum device. The second approach is a hybridization technique based on utilizing quanvolutional operations for image processing as the first quantum convolutional layer of the hybrid neural network, thus building a Quanvolutional Neural Network (QNN). QNN leverages quantum phenomena to facilitate feature extraction, enabling the model to achieve higher accuracy metrics than its classical counterpart. The effectiveness of both architectures was tested on several image classification problems. The first one is a classical image classification problem of CIFAR10 images classification, widely used as a benchmark for various imagery-related tasks. Another problem used for the effectiveness study is the problem of geospatial data analysis. The second problem represents a real-world use case where quantum computing utilization can be very fruitful in the future. For studying the effectiveness, several models were assembled: HNN with a quantum device that replaces one of the hidden layers of the neural network, QNN based on quanvolutional operation and utilizes VGG-16 architecture as a classical part of the model, and also an unmodified VGG-16 was used as a reference model. Experiments were conducted to measure the models' key efficiency metrics: maximal accuracy, complexity of a quantum part of the model and complexity of a classical part of the model. The results of the research indicated the feasibility of both approaches for solving both proposed image classification problems. Results were analyzed to outline the advantages and disadvantages of every approach in terms of selected key metrics. Experiments showed that QNN architectures proved to be a feasible and effective solution for critical practical tasks requiring higher levels of model prediction accuracy and, simultaneously, can tolerate higher processing time and significantly increased costs due to a high number of quantum operations required. Also, the results of the experiments indicated that HNN architectures proved to be a feasible solution for time-critical practical tasks that require higher processing speed and can tolerate slightly decreased accuracy of model predictions.
In the last decade, quantum computing (QC) has shown its great potential in advancing research in many fields. Here we introduce a new quantum-classical neural network, by combining quantum computing and classical computing in a hybrid neural network (HNN) that can be trained to perform image classification. The HNN on the basis of the classic convolutional neural network (CNN) with quantum circuit is considered for image classification problem. The various configurations of HNN were investigated where QC with different number of qubits were used and compared. The HNN configurations were trained, validated, and tested on the more complex CIFAR10 and CIFAR100 datasets in addition to our previous attempts on the simpler MNIST, notMNIST, MNIST Fashion datasets. Performance of HNN was compared for multiclass classification on these datasets for different number of classes (from 2 to 10) using QCs with correspondent number of qubits (from 2 to 4). The metrics measured (accuracy and loss) during these experiments support our assumption about feasibility of HNN application for multiclass classification problems.
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in leveraging the unique properties of quantum computing to develop novel machine learning algorithms and architectures. This research paper presents an investigation of quantum convolutional neural networks (QCNNs), which leverage the unique properties of quantum computing to potentially improve the accuracy and efficiency of image classification tasks. Specifically, the paper explores three different QCNN architectures, including a pure quantum-based QCNN, a hybrid QCNN with a single quantum convolution layer, and a hybrid convolutional architecture with multiple quantum filters. We tested the models on MNIST dataset and the results of the study demonstrate that hybrid architectures that combine quantum and classical processing are more effective than pure quantum-based architectures in image classification tasks. In particular, the third model, the Hybrid Convolution with Multiple Quantum Filters, achieved the highest test set accuracy of 92.7%. The use of multiple quantum filters in conjunction with a classical neural network resulted in enhanced accuracy and efficiency in image classification tasks, highlighting the potential of hybrid architectures for future applications in machine learning tasks.
The integration of quantum computing principles with classical deep learning architectures has emerged as a promising direction for advancing image recognition systems beyond the limitations of purely classical convolutional neural networks (CNNs). This study proposes and analyzes a hybrid quantum–classical deep learning framework based on quanvolutional neural network (QNN) principles, where quantum circuits are embedded within convolutional feature extraction layers to enhance representation capability. The research investigates how quantum-enhanced filters, particularly quanvolutional layers, contribute to improved feature diversity, non-linear transformation capacity, and classification accuracy in image recognition tasks. Building upon established convolutional architectures and quantum machine learning theories, the proposed framework integrates quantum random circuit encoding with classical deep neural networks to evaluate performance gains in comparison to conventional CNN models. The study further incorporates theoretical insights from hybrid quantum-classical learning systems, emphasizing the role of parameterized quantum circuits in feature mapping and optimization stability. The methodology is grounded in NISQ-era quantum computing constraints and leverages hybrid optimization strategies to ensure computational feasibility. Experimental evaluation demonstrates that quanvolution-based models can provide improved robustness in feature extraction, particularly in high-dimensional image spaces, while maintaining competitive computational efficiency. However, scalability limitations and noise sensitivity in quantum circuits remain key challenges. Overall, this work contributes to the growing field of quantum-enhanced machine learning by providing a structured performance analysis of hybrid quanvolutional architectures and highlighting their potential role in next-generation intelligent visual recognition systems.
This study presents a systematic comparison between hybrid quantum-classical neural networks and purely classical models across three benchmark datasets (MNIST, CIFAR100, and STL10) to evaluate their performance, efficiency, and robustness. The hybrid models integrate parameterized quantum circuits with classical deep learning architectures, while the classical counterparts use conventional convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Experiments were conducted over 50 training epochs for each dataset, with evaluations on validation accuracy, test accuracy, training time, computational resource usage, and adversarial robustness (tested with ε=0.1 perturbations).Key findings demonstrate that hybrid models consistently outperform classical models in final accuracy, achieving {99.38\% (MNIST), 41.69\% (CIFAR100), and 74.05\% (STL10) validation accuracy, compared to classical benchmarks of 98.21\%, 32.25\%, and 63.76\%, respectively. Notably, the hybrid advantage scales with dataset complexity, showing the most significant gains on CIFAR100 (+9.44\%) and STL10 (+10.29\%). Hybrid models also train 5--12× faster (e.g., 21.23s vs. 108.44s per epoch on MNIST) and use 6--32\% fewer parameters} while maintaining superior generalization to unseen test data.Adversarial robustness tests reveal that hybrid models are significantly more resilient on simpler datasets (e.g., 45.27\% robust accuracy on MNIST vs. 10.80\% for classical) but show comparable fragility on complex datasets like CIFAR100 ($\sim$1\% robustness for both). Resource efficiency analyses indicate that hybrid models consume less memory (4--5GB vs. 5--6GB for classical) and lower CPU utilization (9.5\% vs. 23.2\% on average).These results suggest that hybrid quantum-classical architectures offer compelling advantages in accuracy, training efficiency, and parameter scalability, particularly for complex vision tasks.
Image classification is a fundamental task in deep learning, and recent advances in quantum computing have generated significant interest in quantum neural networks. Traditionally, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are employed to extract image features, while Multilayer Perceptrons (MLPs) handle decision making. However, parameterized quantum circuits offer the potential to capture complex image features and define sophisticated decision boundaries. In this paper, we present a novel Hybrid Quantum–Classical Neural Network (H-QNN) for image classification, and demonstrate its effectiveness using the MNIST dataset. Our model combines quantum computing with classical supervised learning to enhance classification accuracy and computational efficiency. In this study, we detail the architecture of the H-QNN, emphasizing its capability in feature learning and image classification. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed H-QNN model outperforms conventional deep learning methods in various training scenarios, showcasing its effectiveness in high-dimensional image classification tasks. Additionally, we explore the broader applicability of hybrid quantum–classical approaches in other domains. Our findings contribute to the growing body of work in quantum machine learning, and underscore the potential of quantum-enhanced models for image recognition and classification.