Hybrid quantum transfer learning for crack image classification on NISQ hardware

Quantum computers offer the potential to process data using significantly fewer qubits compared to conventional bits, as per theoretical foundations. However, recent experiments [1] have indicated that the practical feasibility of retrieving an image from its quantum encoded version is currently limited to very small image sizes. Despite this constraint, variational quantum machine learning algorithms can still be employed in the current noisy intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) era. An example is a hybrid quantum machine learning approach for edge detection [2]. In our study, we showcase an application of quantum transfer learning for detecting cracks in gray value images. We evaluate the performance and training time of PennyLane’s standard qubits with IBM’s qasm_simulator and real backends, offering insights into their execution efficiency.