how to rearrange elements in a tensor, like in MATLAB? - tensorflow

Question

For example, I got a tensor [30,6,6,3]: 30 is the batch_size, 6X6 is height x width, 3 is channels).
How could I rearrange its elements from every 3X3 to 1X9, like pixels in MATLAB? As the picture described:
tf.reshape() seems unworkable.

Answer 1

You can do these kinds of transformations by using combination of transpose and reshape. Numpy and TensorFlow logic is the same, so here's a simpler example using numpy. Suppose you have 4x4 array and want to spit it into 4 sub-arrays by skipping rows/columns like in your example.
IE, starting with
a=array([[ 0, 1, 2, 3],
[ 4, 5, 6, 7],
[ 8, 9, 10, 11],
[12, 13, 14, 15]])
​
You want to obtain 4 sub-images like
[0, 2]
[8, 10]
and
[1, 3]
[9, 11]
etc
First you can generate subarrays by stepping over columns
b = a.reshape((4,2,2)).transpose([2,0,1])
This generates the following array
array([[[ 0, 2],
[ 4, 6],
[ 8, 10],
[12, 14]],
[[ 1, 3],
[ 5, 7],
[ 9, 11],
[13, 15]]])
Now you skip the rows
c = b.reshape([2,2,2,2]).transpose(2,0,1,3)
This generates following array
array([[[[ 0, 2],
[ 8, 10]],
[[ 1, 3],
[ 9, 11]]],
[[[ 4, 6],
[12, 14]],
[[ 5, 7],
[13, 15]]]])
Now notice that you have the desired subarrays, but the leftmost shape is 2x2, but you want to have 4, so you reshape
c.reshape([4,2,2])
which gives you
array([[[ 0, 2],
[ 8, 10]],
[[ 1, 3],
[ 9, 11]],
[[ 4, 6],
[12, 14]],
[[ 5, 7],
[13, 15]]])
Note that the general technique of combining n,m array into n*m single dimension is to do reshape(m*n, ...). Because of row-major order, the dimensions to flatten must be on the left for reshape to work as a flattening operation. So if in your example the channels are the last dimension, you will need to transpose them to the left, flatten (using reshape), and then transpose them back.