Automatic visual recognition for leaf disease based on enhanced attention mechanism

Recognition methods have made significant strides across various domains, such as image classification, automatic segmentation, and autonomous driving. Efficient identification of leaf diseases through visual recognition is critical for mitigating economic losses. However, recognizing leaf diseases is challenging due to complex backgrounds and environmental factors. These challenges often result in confusion between lesions and backgrounds, limiting information extraction from small lesion targets. To tackle these challenges, this article proposes a visual leaf disease identification method based on an enhanced attention mechanism. By integrating multi-head attention mechanisms, this method accurately identifies small targets of tomato lesions and demonstrates robustness in complex conditions, such as varying illumination. Additionally, the method incorporates Focaler-SIoU to enhance learning capabilities for challenging classification samples. Experimental results showcase that the proposed algorithm enhances average detection accuracy by 10.3% compared to the baseline model, while maintaining a balanced identification speed. This method facilitates rapid and precise identification of tomato diseases, offering a valuable tool for disease prevention and economic loss reduction.