The segmentation of an image into superpixels are an important step in generating explanations for image models. It is both important that the segmentation is correct and follows meaningful patterns in the picture, but also that the size/number of superpixels are appropriate. If the important features in the image are chopped into too many segments the permutations will probably damage the picture beyond recognition in almost all cases leading to a poor or failing explanation model. As the size of the object of interest is varying it is impossible to set up hard rules for the number of superpixels to segment into – the larger the object is relative to the size of the image, the fewer superpixels should be generated. Using plot_superpixels it is possible to evaluate the superpixel parameters before starting the time-consuming explanation function.
Fun stuff. I’m glad that there’s a lot of work going into explaining neural networks rather than hand-waving them off as magic.