11 Torchvision Datasets for Computer Vision You Need to Know

Computer vision is a field experiencing significant growth and has numerous practical applications, ranging from self-driving cars to facial recognition systems. However, one of the major challenges in this field is obtaining high-quality datasets to train machine learning models.

To address this challenge, torchvision provides access to pre-built datasets, models and transforms specifically designed for computer vision tasks. Torchvision also supports both CPU and GPU acceleration, making it a flexible and powerful tool for developing computer vision applications.

What are “Torchvision Datasets”?

Torchvision datasets are collections of popular datasets commonly used in computer vision for developing and testing machine learning models. With torchvision datasets, developers can train and test their machine learning models on a range of tasks, such as image classification, object detection, and segmentation.

The datasets are also preprocessed, labeled and organized into formats that can be easily loaded and used.

List of the Torchvision Datasets

1. MNIST
2. CIFAR-10
3. CIFAR-100
4. ImageNet
5. COCO
6. Fashion-MNIST
7. SVHN
8. STL-10
9. CelebA
10. Pascal VOC
11. Places365

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1.

This torchvision dataset is popular and widely used in the fields of machine learning and computer vision. It consists of 70,000 grayscale images of handwritten digits 0–9, with 60,000 images for training and 10,000 for testing. Each image is 28x28 pixels in size and has a corresponding label denoting which digits it represents.

To access this dataset, you can download it directly from or load the dataset using torchvision:

import torchvision.datasets as datasets
# Load the training dataset
train_dataset = datasets.MNIST(root='data/', train=True, transform=None, download=True)
# Load the testing dataset
test_dataset = datasets.MNIST(root='data/', train=False, transform=None, download=True)

Code for loading MNIST dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from  on 20/3/2023.

2.

The CIFAR-10 dataset consists of 60,000 32x32 colour images in 10 classes, with 6,000 images per class. It has a total of 50,000 training images and 10,000 test images which is further divided into five training batches and one test batch, each with 10,000 images.

This dataset can be downloaded from , or loaded here using torchvision:

import torch
import torchvision
import torchvision.transforms as transforms
 
transform = transforms.Compose(
    [transforms.ToTensor(),
     transforms.Normalize((0.5, 0.5, 0.5), (0.5, 0.5, 0.5))])
 
trainset = torchvision.datasets.CIFAR10(root='./data', train=True,
                 	                   download=True, transform=transform)
testset = torchvision.datasets.CIFAR10(root='./data', train=False,
                                       download=True, transform=transform)
 
trainloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(trainset, batch_size=4,
                                          shuffle=True, num_workers=2)
testloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(testset, batch_size=4,
                                         shuffle=False, num_workers=2)

Note that you can adjust the batch size and number of worker processes for the data loaders as needed.

Code for loading CIFAR-10 dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from  on 20/3/2023.

3.

The CIFAR-100 dataset has 60,000(50,000 training images and 10,000 test images) 32x32 colour images in 100 classes, with 600 images per class. The 100 classes are grouped into 20 super-classes, with a fine label to denote its class and a coarse label to represent the super-class that it belongs to.

To download the torchvision dataset from Kaggle, please visit the Kaggle and follow the instructions provided there. Alternatively, if you prefer to load the dataset using the torchvision library, you can do this:

import torchvision.datasets as datasets
import torchvision.transforms as transforms
# Define transform to normalize data
transform = transforms.Compose([
    transforms.ToTensor(),
    transforms.Normalize(mean=[0.5, 0.5, 0.5], std=[0.5, 0.5, 0.5])
])
 
# Load CIFAR-100 train and test datasets
trainset = datasets.CIFAR100(root='./data', train=True, download=True, transform=transform)
testset = datasets.CIFAR100(root='./data', train=False, download=True, transform=transform)
 
# Create data loaders for train and test datasets
trainloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(trainset, batch_size=64, shuffle=True)
testloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(testset, batch_size=64, shuffle=False)

Code for loading CIFAR-100 dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from  on 20/3/2023.

4.

The ImageNet dataset in torchvision contains approximately 1.2 million training images, 50,000 validation images and 100,000 test images. Each image in the dataset is labeled with one of the 1,000 categories such as "cat," "dog," "car,", "airplane" etc.

To download this torchvision dataset, you have to visit the or load in torchvision:

import torchvision.datasets as datasets
import torchvision.transforms as transforms
 
# Set the path to the ImageNet dataset on your machine
data_path = "/path/to/imagenet"
 
# Create the ImageNet dataset object with custom options
imagenet_train = datasets.ImageNet(
	root=data_path,
	split='train',
    transform=transforms.Compose([
        transforms.Resize(256),
        transforms.RandomCrop(224),
        transforms.RandomHorizontalFlip(),
        transforms.ToTensor(),
        transforms.Normalize(
            mean=[0.485, 0.456, 0.406],
            std=[0.229, 0.224, 0.225])
	]),
	download=False
)
 
imagenet_val = datasets.ImageNet(
	root=data_path,
	split='val',
    transform=transforms.Compose([
        transforms.Resize(256),
        transforms.CenterCrop(224),
        transforms.ToTensor(),
        transforms.Normalize(
            mean=[0.485, 0.456, 0.406],
            std=[0.229, 0.224, 0.225])
	]),
	download=False
)
 
# Print the number of images in the training and validation sets
print("Number of images in the training set:", len(imagenet_train))
print("Number of images in the validation set:", len(imagenet_val))

Code for loading ImageNet dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from  on 21/3/2023.

5.

The Microsoft Common Objects in Context(MS Coco) dataset contains 328,000 high-quality visual images of everyday objects and humans, often used as a standard to compare the performance of algorithms in real-time object detection.

To download this torchvision dataset, please visit the or load in torchvision:

import torch
from torchvision import datasets, transforms
# Define transformation
transform = transforms.Compose([
   transforms.Resize(256),
   transforms.CenterCrop(224),
   transforms.ToTensor(),
   transforms.Normalize(mean=[0.485, 0.456, 0.406],
                        std=[0.229, 0.224, 0.225])
])
 
# Load training dataset
train_dataset = datasets.CocoDetection(root='/path/to/dataset/train2017',
                                       annFile='/path/to/dataset/annotations/instances_train2017.json',
                                       transform=transform)
train_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(train_dataset, batch_size=32, shuffle=True)
 
# Load validation dataset
val_dataset = datasets.CocoDetection(root='/path/to/dataset/val2017',
                                     annFile='/path/to/dataset/annotations/instances_val2017.json',
                                     transform=transform)
val_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(val_dataset, batch_size=32, shuffle=False)

Make sure to replace the /path/to/dataset placeholders with the actual path to your dataset directory. Also, adjust the batch_size parameter to fit your needs.

Code for loading MS Coco dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from on 21/3/2023.

6.

The Fashion MNIST dataset was created by Zalando Research as a replacement for the original MNIST dataset. The Fashion MNIST dataset consists of 70,000 grayscale images (training set of 60,000 and a test set of 10,000) of clothing items.

The images are 28x28 pixels in size and represent 10 different classes of clothing items, including ­T-shirts/tops, trousers, pullovers, dresses, coats, sandals, shirts, sneakers, bags, and ankle boots. It is similar to the original MNIST dataset, but with more challenging classification tasks due to the greater complexity and variety of the clothing items.

This torchvision dataset can be downloaded from , or loaded using this code:

import torch
import torchvision
import torchvision.transforms as transforms

# Define transformations
transform = transforms.Compose(
    [transforms.ToTensor(),
     transforms.Normalize((0.5,), (0.5,))])
# Load the dataset
trainset = torchvision.datasets.FashionMNIST(root='./data', train=True,
                                        download=True, transform=transform)

testset = torchvision.datasets.FashionMNIST(root='./data', train=False,
                                       download=True, transform=transform)

# Create data loaders
trainloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(trainset, batch_size=4,
                                          shuffle=True, num_workers=2)

testloader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(testset, batch_size=4,
                                         shuffle=False, num_workers=2)

Code for loading Fashion-MNIST dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from on 21/3/2023.

7.

The SVHN (Street View House Numbers) dataset is an image dataset derived from Google’s Street View imagery, which consists of cropped images of house numbers taken from street-level images. It is available in a full format with all the house numbers and their bounding boxes and a cropped format with just the house numbers alone. The full format is often used for object detection tasks, while the cropped format is commonly used for classification tasks.

The SVHN dataset is also included in the torchvision package and it contains 73,257 images for training, 26,032 images for testing and 531,131 additional images for extra training data.

To download this torchvision dataset, you can go to or you can load it here:

import torchvision
import torch

# Load the train and test sets
train_set = torchvision.datasets.SVHN(root='./data', split='train', download=True, transform=torchvision.transforms.ToTensor())
test_set = torchvision.datasets.SVHN(root='./data', split='test', download=True, transform=torchvision.transforms.ToTensor())

# Create data loaders
train_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(train_set, batch_size=64, shuffle=True)
test_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(test_set, batch_size=64, shuffle=False)

Code for loading SVHN dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from on 22/3/2023.

8.

The STL-10 dataset is an image recognition dataset that consists of 10 classes, with a total of about 6,000+ images. The STL-10 stands for “Standard Training and Test Set for Image Recognition-10 classes” and the 10 classes in the dataset are:

• Airplane
• Bird
• Car
• Cat
• Deer
• Dog
• Horse
• Monkey
• Ship
• Truck

To access this dataset, you can download it directly from or load the dataset using torchvision:

import torchvision.datasets as datasets
import torchvision.transforms as transforms

# Define the transformation to apply to the data
transform = transforms.Compose([
    transforms.ToTensor(),   

# Convert PIL image to PyTorch tensor
    transforms.Normalize((0.5, 0.5, 0.5), (0.5, 0.5, 0.5))   # Normalize the data
])

# Load the STL-10 dataset
train_dataset = datasets.STL10(root='./data', split='train', download=True, transform=transform)
test_dataset = datasets.STL10(root='./data', split='test', download=True, transform=transform)

Code for loading STL-10 dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from on 22/3/2023.

9.

This torchvision dataset is a popular large-scale face attributes dataset which comprises over 200,000 celebrity images. It was first released by researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2015. An image in the CelebA consists of 40 facial attributes such as age, hair colour, facial expression and gender. Also, these images were retrieved from the internet and cover a wide range of facial appearances, including different races, ages and genders. Bounding box annotations for the location of the face in each image, as well as 5 landmark points for the eyes, nose and mouth.

You can download this dataset on or load it using this code:

import torchvision.datasets as datasets
import torchvision.transforms as transforms

transform = transforms.Compose([
    transforms.CenterCrop(178),
    transforms.Resize(128),
    transforms.ToTensor(),
    transforms.Normalize((0.5, 0.5, 0.5), (0.5, 0.5, 0.5))
])
celeba_dataset = datasets.CelebA(root='./data', split='train', transform=transform, download=True)

Code for loading CelebA dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from on 22/3/2023.

10.

The VOC dataset (Visual Object Classes) was first introduced in 2005 as part of the PASCAL VOC Challenge, which aimed at advancing the state of the art in visual recognition. It consists of images of 20 different object categories, including animals, vehicles, and common household objects. Each of these images is annotated with the locations and classifications of objects within the image. The annotations include both bounding boxes and pixel-level segmentation masks.

The dataset is split into two main sets: the training and validation sets. The training set contains approximately 5,000 images with annotations, while the validation set contains around 5,000 images without annotations. In addition, the dataset also includes a test set with approximately 10,000 images, but the annotations for this set are not publicly available.

To access the recent dataset, you can download from the ,  or load it in torchvision:

import torch
import torchvision
from torchvision import transforms

# Define transformations to apply to the images
transform = transforms.Compose([
    transforms.Resize((224, 224)),
    transforms.ToTensor(),
    transforms.Normalize(mean=[0.485, 0.456, 0.406], std=[0.229, 0.224, 0.225])
])

# Load the train and validation datasets
train_dataset = torchvision.datasets.VOCDetection(root='./data', year='2007', image_set='train', transform=transform)
val_dataset = torchvision.datasets.VOCDetection(root='./data', year='2007', image_set='val', transform=transform)
# Create data loaders
train_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(train_dataset, batch_size=32, shuffle=True)
val_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(val_dataset, batch_size=32, shuffle=False)

Code for loading PASCAL VOC dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from on 22/3/2023.

11.

The Places365 dataset is a large-scale scene recognition dataset with more than 1.8 million images covering 365 scene categories. The Places365 Standard dataset consists of around 1.8 million images, while the Places365-Challenge dataset contains 50,000 additional validation images that are more challenging for recognition models.

To access this dataset, you can use or load in torchvision here:

import torch
import torchvision
from torchvision import transforms

# Define transformations to apply to the images
transform = transforms.Compose([
    transforms.Resize((224, 224)),
    transforms.ToTensor(),
    transforms.Normalize(mean=[0.485, 0.456, 0.406], std=[0.229, 0.224, 0.225])
])

# Load the train and validation datasets
train_dataset = torchvision.datasets.Places365(root='./data', split='train-standard', transform=transform)
val_dataset = torchvision.datasets.Places365(root='./data', split='val', transform=transform)
# Create data loaders
train_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(train_dataset, batch_size=32, shuffle=True)
val_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(val_dataset, batch_size=32, shuffle=False)

Code for loading Places365 dataset using PyTorch torchvision package. Retrieved from on 22/3/2023.

Common Use Cases for Torchvision Datasets

- This dataset is commonly used for image classification tasks, particularly for handwritten digit recognition.

and - These datasets are commonly used for image classification tasks, particularly for object recognition.

- This torchvision dataset contains millions of images of various objects and animals and is commonly used for object recognition tasks.

- This dataset is commonly used for object detection, segmentation, and captioning tasks.

- Similar to MNIST, this dataset is commonly used for image classification tasks, particularly for fashion item recognition.

- This dataset is commonly used for digit recognition tasks. It is particularly useful for developing and testing algorithms for recognizing numbers in real-world settings.

- This torchvision dataset is commonly used for image classification tasks, particularly for object recognition.

- This dataset is commonly used for facial recognition and attribute classification tasks. It consists of images of various facial expressions, poses and backgrounds.

- This dataset is commonly used for object detection and segmentation tasks.

- This dataset is commonly used for scene recognition tasks. It consists of images of various indoor and outdoor scenes such as bedrooms, beaches, and offices.

Final Thoughts

Torchvision datasets are often used for training and evaluating machine learning models such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which are commonly used in computer vision applications.

They are also available for anyone to download and use freely.

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The lead image of this article was generated via HackerNoon's AI Stable Diffusionmodel using the prompt 'thousands of images organized together in small frames'.

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