A survey: object detection methods from CNN to transformer

Abstract Object detection is the most important problem in computer vision tasks. After AlexNet proposed, based on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) methods have become mainstream in the computer vision field, many researches on neural networks and different transformations of algorithm structures have appeared. In order to achieve fast and accurate detection effects, it is necessary to jump out of the existing CNN framework and has great challenges. Transformer’s relatively mature theoretical support and technological development in the field of Natural Language Processing have brought it into the researcher’s sight, and it has been proved that Transformer’s method can be used for computer vision tasks, and proved that it exceeds the existing CNN method in some tasks. In order to enable more researchers to better understand the development process of object detection methods, existing methods, different frameworks, challenging problems and development trends, paper introduced historical classic methods of object detection used CNN, discusses the highlights, advantages and disadvantages of these algorithms. By consulting a large amount of paper, the paper compared different CNN detection methods and Transformer detection methods. Vertically under fair conditions, 13 different detection methods that have a broad impact on the field and are the most mainstream and promising are selected for comparison. The comparative data gives us confidence in the development of Transformer and the convergence between different methods. It also presents the recent innovative approaches to using Transformer in computer vision tasks. In the end, the challenges, opportunities and future prospects of this field are summarized.