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Convolutional layer

A convolutional layer is a neural-network layer that applies shared learned filters to local regions of structured input to produce feature representations.

How 14 Manning books explain it

Natural Language Processing in Action, Second Edition

A convolutional layer is a neural-network layer that applies learned filters across local regions of its input to produce feature maps.

How it is used
Detects local word-order patterns for text classification, including identifying disaster-related posts.
How deep it goes
Works from sliding-window intuition through hand-set Conv1d weights, tensor shapes, and a trained classifier.
Examples
Uses part-of-speech pattern matching and a disaster-tweet classifier; a separate handwritten filter detects Morse-code dots.
What you can do after
Build it from scratch as a PyTorch Conv1d text-classifier component, aligning embedding channels and checking output shapes.

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Math and Architectures of Deep Learning

A neural-network layer that applies convolution operations to an input, commonly used to extract local features from images.

How it is used
Extracts local image, curve, and video patterns as feature maps for neural networks.
How deep it goes
Derives sliding weighted sums, padding, matrix form, backpropagation linkage, 1D–3D cases, and PyTorch tensor interfaces.
Examples
Uses smoothing and edge-detection kernels, noisy text images, a moving-ball video, and LeNet on MNIST digits.
What you can do after
Apply it via PyTorch Conv1d, Conv2d, and Conv3d layers within trainable neural networks.

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Deep Learning with PyTorch, Second Edition

A PyTorch 2D convolution layer module that applies learned filters over spatial input regions.

How it is used
Replaces fully connected image processing with local, shared filters in a bird-versus-airplane classifier.
How deep it goes
Works through neighborhood weighting, learned parameters, tensor shapes, hand-set filters, and a two-layer network; leaves continuous convolution aside.
Examples
Uses a CIFAR-10 bird image, averaging and edge-detection kernels, tensor-shape checks, and a bird-versus-airplane network.
What you can do after
Apply it via PyTorch `nn.Conv2d` to assemble image-classification layers and track their channel and spatial shapes.

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Deep Learning with Python, Third Edition

A two-dimensional convolution layer used here with a 1×1 kernel to project a residual to a matching shape.

How it is used
Extracts local image features for classification and provides a configurable output depth.
How deep it goes
Explains patch-wise transformation and feature-map dimensions, contrasting convolution with Dense layers and max pooling.
Examples
Uses MNIST digit classification and dogs-versus-cats classification to show Conv2D stacks.
What you can do after
Apply it via Keras Conv2D to assemble an image classifier and inspect changing feature-map shapes.

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Deep Learning with R, Third Edition

A convolutional layer is a neural-network layer that applies learned local filters across spatial or sequential input dimensions.

How it is used
Builds local visual features for image classification and per-pixel segmentation.
How deep it goes
Explains patch-based feature maps, output channels, padding and strides through architecture and shape examples, without a formal derivation.
Examples
Uses an MNIST digit classifier and an image-segmentation model with per-pixel output.
What you can do after
Build it from scratch: assemble and train an R/Keras convolutional classifier, then adapt downsampling for segmentation.

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Grokking AI Algorithms, Second Edition

A convolutional layer is a neural-network layer that applies shared filters to local regions of an input representation while preserving spatial organization.

How it is used
Extracts local image features while preserving spatial arrangement for image analysis and U-Net image generation.
How deep it goes
Works through filter scanning, dot products, feature-map shapes, padding, and NumPy loops; stops short of a complete training procedure.
Examples
Traces a 3×3 filter over an 8×8 image, calculates a row dot product, and produces eight feature maps.
What you can do after
Build a feature-map calculation from scratch with NumPy loops, padding, filters, and biases.

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Evolutionary Deep Learning: Genetic algorithms and neural networks

A convolutional layer applies learned local filters across structured input locations to detect spatial or otherwise local patterns.

How it is used
Extracts image features for CNN classifiers and for autoencoder encoding and reconstruction.
How deep it goes
Demonstrates sliding learned filters and Keras layer construction, then encodes filter and kernel choices for evolutionary architectures.
Examples
Uses Fashion-MNIST CNNs, a 28×28 grayscale convolutional autoencoder, and randomly generated architecture gene sequences.
What you can do after
Apply it via Keras Conv2D to assemble CNN and autoencoder feature-extraction paths and vary their architecture parameters.

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Optimization Algorithms: AI techniques for design, planning, and control problems

A transformation that applies shared learned weights to neighboring feature representations.

How it is used
Uses convolution to learn node representations from local graph structure for graph embedding and classification.
How deep it goes
Explains the operator’s structural intuition and demonstrates a two-layer GCN, but does not derive convolution mathematically.
Examples
Uses GCNConv layers, the Cora dataset, edge indices, ReLU, dropout, and a 200-epoch Adam training loop.
What you can do after
Builds a node-embedding model with PyTorch Geometric’s GCNConv layer and trains it on graph data.

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Learn Generative AI with PyTorch

A PyTorch convolution layer that applies learned 2D filters to an input tensor to produce feature maps.

How it is used
Extracts spatial features from images for classification, discrimination, encoding, and generative reconstruction.
How deep it goes
Explains sliding-filter arithmetic, tensor shapes, parameters, learned weights, stride, padding, and multi-layer architectures.
Examples
Uses a hand-weighted two-by-two filter, a DCGAN discriminator, and a VAE encoder to demonstrate outputs and architecture.
What you can do after
Build it from scratch using PyTorch nn.Conv2d, configure tensor channels and spatial movement, and inspect resulting feature maps.

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Sutskever's List

A convolutional layer is a neural-network layer that applies learned local filters across an input to produce spatial feature responses.

How it is used
Enables automatic, hierarchical feature extraction in AlexNet’s image-classification architecture.
How deep it goes
Explains feature progression, parameter sharing, filter size, and stride through architectural examples, without deriving convolution mathematically.
Examples
Uses AlexNet’s 224 × 224 × 3 input, 11 × 11 first-layer filters, stride of 4, and two-GPU architecture diagram.
What you can do after
Evaluate/understand how filter size, stride, and pooling change spatial dimensions while convolutional layers build increasingly complex image features.

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Machine Learning Algorithms in Depth

A convolutional layer is a neural-network layer that applies learned convolution kernels to an input representation.

How it is used
Uses learned local filters to extract features from images, time series, and volumetric data.
How deep it goes
Defines sliding kernels, dot products, feature maps, stacking, and activation placement, but does not derive gradient formulas.
Examples
Demonstrates 2D image convolution in LeNet for MNIST and 1D convolution in a multi-input question-similarity model.
What you can do after
Builds CNNs with Conv2D or Conv1D, pooling, nonlinearities, and downstream classification layers in Keras/TensorFlow.

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Build a Text-to-Image Generator (from Scratch)

Conv2d is a two-dimensional convolution layer that applies learned spatial filters to image-like tensors.

How it is used
Extracts spatial features for image classification and denoising architectures.
How deep it goes
Explains filters, feature maps, and architectural roles, but stops short of deriving convolution numerically or implementing Conv2d from scratch.
Examples
Uses image denoising, U-Net feature extraction, and 32 × 32 image patches projected into 64 token vectors.
What you can do after
Evaluate/understand how learned filters produce feature maps and support downsampling, denoising, and patch-token conversion.

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Distributed Machine Learning Patterns

A convolutional layer is a neural-network layer that applies learned convolutional filters to its input.

How it is used
Builds image-classification CNNs by extracting feature mappings before pooling and dense classification.
How deep it goes
Defines layer placement and TensorFlow configuration, but stops short of convolution arithmetic or filter-internals.
Examples
Uses a three-layer 28 × 28 image CNN and a LeNet architecture for classifying images or video frames.
What you can do after
Build it from scratch with TensorFlow Sequential and Conv2D, then inspect, compile, train, and monitor the resulting CNN.

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Grokking Machine Learning

A convolutional layer is a neural-network layer that produces a filtered representation by applying convolutions across an input.

How it is used
Adapts neural-network architectures to complicated images where flattening pixels into a long vector loses information.
How deep it goes
Sketches a sliding-window convolution with example window sizes, but gives no formula or implementation details.
Examples
Uses MNIST handwritten digits and CIFAR-10 color images as image-recognition examples.
What you can do after
Understand how a small window moves across an image and applies convolutions to form a smaller representation.

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Related concepts

These guides are generated from the text of Manning books by Manning's knowledge graph and link to the sections they draw on. The full books are available on liveBook and at manning.com.