Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Conferences
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Hands-On Neural Network Programming with C#
Hands-On Neural Network Programming with C#

Hands-On Neural Network Programming with C#: Add powerful neural network capabilities to your C# enterprise applications

eBook
€8.99 €26.99
Paperback
€32.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at €18.99p/m

What do you get with Print?

Product feature icon Instant access to your digital eBook copy whilst your Print order is Shipped
Product feature icon Paperback book shipped to your preferred address
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
OR
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Shipping Address

Billing Address

Shipping Methods
Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

Hands-On Neural Network Programming with C#

Building Our First Neural Network Together

Now that we've had a quick refresher on Neural Networks, I thought that perhaps a good starting point, code-wise, would be for us to write a very simple neural network. We're not going to go crazy; we'll just lay the basic framework for a few functions so that you can get a good idea of what is behind the scenes of many of the APIs that you'll use. From start to finish, we'll develop this network application so that you are familiar with all the basic components that are contained in a neural network. This implementation is not perfect or all-encompassing, nor is it meant to be. As I mentioned, this will merely provide a framework for us to use in the rest of the book. This is a very basic neural network with the added functionality of being able to save and load networks and data. In any event, you will have...

Technical requirements

You would need to have Microsoft Visual Studio installed on the system.

Check out the following video to see Code in Action: http://bit.ly/2NYJa5G.

Our neural network

Let's begin by showing you an of what a simple neural network would look like, visually. It consists of an input layer with 2 inputs, a Hidden Layer with 3 neurons (sometimes called nodes), and a final output layer consisting of a single neuron. Of course, neural networks can consist of many more layers (and neurons per layer), and once you get into deep learning you will see much more of this, but for now this will suffice. Remember, each node, which is labeled as follows with an N, is an individual neuron – its own little processing brain, if you will:

Let’s break down the neural network into its three basic parts; inputs, Hidden Layers and outputs:

Inputs: This is the initial data for our network. Each input is a whose output to the Hidden Layer is the initial input value.

Hidden Layers: These are the heart and soul of our network, and...

Neural network training

How do we train a neural network? Basically, we will provide the with a set of input data as well as the results we expect to see, which correspond to those inputs. That data is then run through the network until the network understands what we are looking for. We will train, test, train, test, train, test, on and on until our network understands our data (or doesn't, but that's a whole other conversation). We continue to do this until some designated stop condition is satisfied, such as an error rate threshold. Let's quickly cover some of the terminology we will use while training neural networks.

Back propagation: After our data is run through the network, we to validate that data what we expect to be the correct output. We do this by propagating backward (hence backprop or back propagation) through each of the Hidden Layers of our network...

Neural network functions

The following basic list contains the functions we are going to develop n order to lay down our neural network foundation:

  • Creating a new network
  • Importing a network
  • Manually entering user data
  • Importing a dataset
  • Training our network
  • Testing our network

With that behind us, let's start coding!

Creating a new network

This menu option will allow us to create a new network from scratch:

public NNManager SetupNetwork()
{
_numInputParameters = 2;

int[] hidden = new int[2];
hidden[0] = 3;
hidden[1] = 1;
_numHiddenLayers = 1;
_hiddenNeurons = hidden;
_numOutputParameters = 1;
_network = new Network(_numInputParameters, _hiddenNeurons,
_numOutputParameters);
...

The neural network

With many of the ancillary, but important, functions coded, we now turn our attention to the meat of the neural network, the network itself. Within a neural network, the network part is an all-encompassing universe. Everything resides within it. Within this structure we will need to store the input, output, and Hidden Layers of neurons, as well as the learning rate and Momentum, as follows:

public class Network
{
public double LearningRate{ get; set; }
public double Momentum{ get; set; }
public List<Neuron>InputLayer{ get; set; }
public List<List<Neuron>>HiddenLayers{ get; set; }
public List<Neuron>OutputLayer{ get; set; }
public List<Neuron>MirrorLayer {get; set; }
public List<Neuron>CanonicalLayer{ get; set; }
...

Examples

Now that we have our code created, let's use a few examples to see how it can be used.

Training to a minimum

In this example, we will use the code we wrote to train a network to a minimum value or threshold. For each step, the network prompts you for the correct data, saving us the process of cluttering up our example code with this. In production, you would probably want to pass in the parameters without any user intervention, in case this is run as a service or microservice:

Training to a maximum

In this example, we are going to train the network to reach...

Summary

In this chapter, we saw how to write a complete neural network from scratch. Although the following is a lot we've left out, it does the basics, and we've gotten to see it as pure C# code! We should now have a much better understanding of what a neural network is and what it comprises than when we first started.

In the next chapter, we will begin our journey into more complicated network structures such as recurrent and convolutional neural networks. There's a lot to cover, so hold on to your coding hats!

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon
Download code icon Download Code

Key benefits

  • Get a strong foundation of neural networks with access to various machine learning and deep learning libraries
  • Real-world case studies illustrating various neural network techniques and architectures used by practitioners
  • Cutting-edge coverage of Deep Networks, optimization algorithms, convolutional networks, autoencoders and many more

Description

Neural networks have made a surprise comeback in the last few years and have brought tremendous innovation in the world of artificial intelligence. The goal of this book is to provide C# programmers with practical guidance in solving complex computational challenges using neural networks and C# libraries such as CNTK, and TensorFlowSharp. This book will take you on a step-by-step practical journey, covering everything from the mathematical and theoretical aspects of neural networks, to building your own deep neural networks into your applications with the C# and .NET frameworks. This book begins by giving you a quick refresher of neural networks. You will learn how to build a neural network from scratch using packages such as Encog, Aforge, and Accord. You will learn about various concepts and techniques, such as deep networks, perceptrons, optimization algorithms, convolutional networks, and autoencoders. You will learn ways to add intelligent features to your .NET apps, such as facial and motion detection, object detection and labeling, language understanding, knowledge, and intelligent search. Throughout this book, you will be working on interesting demonstrations that will make it easier to implement complex neural networks in your enterprise applications.

Who is this book for?

This book is for Machine Learning Engineers, Data Scientists, Deep Learning Aspirants and Data Analysts who are now looking to move into advanced machine learning and deep learning with C#. Prior knowledge of machine learning and working experience with C# programming is required to take most out of this book

What you will learn

  • •Understand perceptrons and how to implement them in C#
  • •Learn how to train and visualize a neural network using cognitive services
  • •Perform image recognition for detecting and labeling objects using C# and TensorFlowSharp
  • •Detect specific image characteristics such as a face using Accord.Net
  • •Demonstrate particle swarm optimization using a simple XOR problem and Encog
  • •Train convolutional neural networks using ConvNetSharp
  • •Find optimal parameters for your neural network functions using numeric and heuristic optimization techniques.
Estimated delivery fee Deliver to Malta

Premium delivery 7 - 10 business days

€32.95
(Includes tracking information)

Product Details

Country selected
Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Sep 29, 2018
Length: 328 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789612011
Category :
Languages :
Tools :

What do you get with Print?

Product feature icon Instant access to your digital eBook copy whilst your Print order is Shipped
Product feature icon Paperback book shipped to your preferred address
Product feature icon Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats
Product feature icon Access this title in our online reader with advanced features
Product feature icon DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want
OR
Modal Close icon
Payment Processing...
tick Completed

Shipping Address

Billing Address

Shipping Methods
Estimated delivery fee Deliver to Malta

Premium delivery 7 - 10 business days

€32.95
(Includes tracking information)

Product Details

Publication date : Sep 29, 2018
Length: 328 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781789612011
Category :
Languages :
Tools :

Packt Subscriptions

See our plans and pricing
Modal Close icon
€18.99 billed monthly
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Simple pricing, no contract
€189.99 billed annually
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just €5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts
€264.99 billed in 18 months
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just €5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts

Frequently bought together


Stars icon
Total 65.98
Hands-On Neural Network Programming with C#
€32.99
Hands-On Network Programming with C# and .NET Core
€32.99
Total 65.98 Stars icon
Banner background image

Table of Contents

15 Chapters
A Quick Refresher Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Building Our First Neural Network Together Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Decision Trees and Random Forests Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Face and Motion Detection Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Training CNNs Using ConvNetSharp Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Training Autoencoders Using RNNSharp Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Replacing Back Propagation with PSO Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Function Optimizations: How and Why Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Finding Optimal Parameters Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Object Detection with TensorFlowSharp Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Time Series Prediction and LSTM Using CNTK Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
GRUs Compared to LSTMs, RNNs, and Feedforward networks Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Activation Function Timings Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Function Optimization Reference Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Other Books You May Enjoy Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
(1 Ratings)
5 star 0%
4 star 0%
3 star 0%
2 star 100%
1 star 0%
MrBigBeast Feb 10, 2020
Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon Empty star icon 2
The book presents (sort of) code for a neural network.The good: it's all in C# without requiring outside packages. Interesting reference stuff towards the end.the bad: the code is cute, using lots of little C# specific tricks. Good luck porting this Java. One class appears on page 35, then its constructor is introduced a dozen or so pages later. Why? Code notes aren't commented.Why couldn't the author just cut and paste his actual code?The Packt Publishing outfit claims you can download the code from their web site. The site is dead. Once you register and agree to allow cookies, nothing works. The links that do respond take forever. Not a good sign for a publisher of programming books...
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Get free access to Packt library with over 7500+ books and video courses for 7 days!
Start Free Trial

FAQs

What is the delivery time and cost of print book? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Shipping Details

USA:

'

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the US within 10-15 business days

Premium: Trackable Delivery to most addresses in the US within 3-8 business days

UK:

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 7-9 business days.
Shipments are not trackable

Premium: Trackable delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 3-4 business days!
Add one extra business day for deliveries to Northern Ireland and Scottish Highlands and islands

EU:

Premium: Trackable delivery to most EU destinations within 4-9 business days.

Australia:

Economy: Can deliver to P. O. Boxes and private residences.
Trackable service with delivery to addresses in Australia only.
Delivery time ranges from 7-9 business days for VIC and 8-10 business days for Interstate metro
Delivery time is up to 15 business days for remote areas of WA, NT & QLD.

Premium: Delivery to addresses in Australia only
Trackable delivery to most P. O. Boxes and private residences in Australia within 4-5 days based on the distance to a destination following dispatch.

India:

Premium: Delivery to most Indian addresses within 5-6 business days

Rest of the World:

Premium: Countries in the American continent: Trackable delivery to most countries within 4-7 business days

Asia:

Premium: Delivery to most Asian addresses within 5-9 business days

Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

  1. Afghanistan
  2. American Samoa
  3. Belarus
  4. Brunei Darussalam
  5. Central African Republic
  6. The Democratic Republic of Congo
  7. Eritrea
  8. Guinea-bissau
  9. Iran
  10. Lebanon
  11. Libiya Arab Jamahriya
  12. Somalia
  13. Sudan
  14. Russian Federation
  15. Syrian Arab Republic
  16. Ukraine
  17. Venezuela
What is custom duty/charge? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customs duty are charges levied on goods when they cross international borders. It is a tax that is imposed on imported goods. These duties are charged by special authorities and bodies created by local governments and are meant to protect local industries, economies, and businesses.

Do I have to pay customs charges for the print book order? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

The orders shipped to the countries that are listed under EU27 will not bear custom charges. They are paid by Packt as part of the order.

List of EU27 countries: www.gov.uk/eu-eea:

A custom duty or localized taxes may be applicable on the shipment and would be charged by the recipient country outside of the EU27 which should be paid by the customer and these duties are not included in the shipping charges been charged on the order.

How do I know my custom duty charges? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

The amount of duty payable varies greatly depending on the imported goods, the country of origin and several other factors like the total invoice amount or dimensions like weight, and other such criteria applicable in your country.

For example:

  • If you live in Mexico, and the declared value of your ordered items is over $ 50, for you to receive a package, you will have to pay additional import tax of 19% which will be $ 9.50 to the courier service.
  • Whereas if you live in Turkey, and the declared value of your ordered items is over € 22, for you to receive a package, you will have to pay additional import tax of 18% which will be € 3.96 to the courier service.
How can I cancel my order? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Cancellation Policy for Published Printed Books:

You can cancel any order within 1 hour of placing the order. Simply contact customercare@packt.com with your order details or payment transaction id. If your order has already started the shipment process, we will do our best to stop it. However, if it is already on the way to you then when you receive it, you can contact us at customercare@packt.com using the returns and refund process.

Please understand that Packt Publishing cannot provide refunds or cancel any order except for the cases described in our Return Policy (i.e. Packt Publishing agrees to replace your printed book because it arrives damaged or material defect in book), Packt Publishing will not accept returns.

What is your returns and refunds policy? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Return Policy:

We want you to be happy with your purchase from Packtpub.com. We will not hassle you with returning print books to us. If the print book you receive from us is incorrect, damaged, doesn't work or is unacceptably late, please contact Customer Relations Team on customercare@packt.com with the order number and issue details as explained below:

  1. If you ordered (eBook, Video or Print Book) incorrectly or accidentally, please contact Customer Relations Team on customercare@packt.com within one hour of placing the order and we will replace/refund you the item cost.
  2. Sadly, if your eBook or Video file is faulty or a fault occurs during the eBook or Video being made available to you, i.e. during download then you should contact Customer Relations Team within 14 days of purchase on customercare@packt.com who will be able to resolve this issue for you.
  3. You will have a choice of replacement or refund of the problem items.(damaged, defective or incorrect)
  4. Once Customer Care Team confirms that you will be refunded, you should receive the refund within 10 to 12 working days.
  5. If you are only requesting a refund of one book from a multiple order, then we will refund you the appropriate single item.
  6. Where the items were shipped under a free shipping offer, there will be no shipping costs to refund.

On the off chance your printed book arrives damaged, with book material defect, contact our Customer Relation Team on customercare@packt.com within 14 days of receipt of the book with appropriate evidence of damage and we will work with you to secure a replacement copy, if necessary. Please note that each printed book you order from us is individually made by Packt's professional book-printing partner which is on a print-on-demand basis.

What tax is charged? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Currently, no tax is charged on the purchase of any print book (subject to change based on the laws and regulations). A localized VAT fee is charged only to our European and UK customers on eBooks, Video and subscriptions that they buy. GST is charged to Indian customers for eBooks and video purchases.

What payment methods can I use? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

You can pay with the following card types:

  1. Visa Debit
  2. Visa Credit
  3. MasterCard
  4. PayPal
What is the delivery time and cost of print books? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Shipping Details

USA:

'

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the US within 10-15 business days

Premium: Trackable Delivery to most addresses in the US within 3-8 business days

UK:

Economy: Delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 7-9 business days.
Shipments are not trackable

Premium: Trackable delivery to most addresses in the U.K. within 3-4 business days!
Add one extra business day for deliveries to Northern Ireland and Scottish Highlands and islands

EU:

Premium: Trackable delivery to most EU destinations within 4-9 business days.

Australia:

Economy: Can deliver to P. O. Boxes and private residences.
Trackable service with delivery to addresses in Australia only.
Delivery time ranges from 7-9 business days for VIC and 8-10 business days for Interstate metro
Delivery time is up to 15 business days for remote areas of WA, NT & QLD.

Premium: Delivery to addresses in Australia only
Trackable delivery to most P. O. Boxes and private residences in Australia within 4-5 days based on the distance to a destination following dispatch.

India:

Premium: Delivery to most Indian addresses within 5-6 business days

Rest of the World:

Premium: Countries in the American continent: Trackable delivery to most countries within 4-7 business days

Asia:

Premium: Delivery to most Asian addresses within 5-9 business days

Disclaimer:
All orders received before 5 PM U.K time would start printing from the next business day. So the estimated delivery times start from the next day as well. Orders received after 5 PM U.K time (in our internal systems) on a business day or anytime on the weekend will begin printing the second to next business day. For example, an order placed at 11 AM today will begin printing tomorrow, whereas an order placed at 9 PM tonight will begin printing the day after tomorrow.


Unfortunately, due to several restrictions, we are unable to ship to the following countries:

  1. Afghanistan
  2. American Samoa
  3. Belarus
  4. Brunei Darussalam
  5. Central African Republic
  6. The Democratic Republic of Congo
  7. Eritrea
  8. Guinea-bissau
  9. Iran
  10. Lebanon
  11. Libiya Arab Jamahriya
  12. Somalia
  13. Sudan
  14. Russian Federation
  15. Syrian Arab Republic
  16. Ukraine
  17. Venezuela