Abstract
Early and accurate detection of COVID-19 is an essential process to curb the spread of this deadly disease and its mortality rate. Chest radiology scan is a significant tool for early management and diagnosis of COVID-19 since the virus targets the respiratory system. Chest X-ray (CXR) images are highly useful in the effective detection of COVID-19, thanks to its availability, cost-effective means, and rapid outcomes. In addition, Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques such as deep learning (DL) models play a significant role in designing automated diagnostic processes using CXR images. With this motivation, the current study presents a new Quantum Seagull Optimization Algorithm with DL-based COVID-19 diagnosis model, named QSGOA-DL technique. The proposed QSGOA-DL technique intends to detect and classify COVID-19 with the help of CXR images. In this regard, the QSGOA-DL technique involves the design of EfficientNet-B4 as a feature extractor, whereas hyperparameter optimization is carried out with the help of QSGOA technique. Moreover, the classification process is performed by a multilayer extreme learning machine (MELM) model. The novelty of the study lies in the designing of QSGOA for hyperparameter optimization of the EfficientNet-B4 model. An extensive series of simulations was carried out on the benchmark test CXR dataset, and the results were assessed under different aspects. The simulation results demonstrate the promising performance of the proposed QSGOA-DL technique compared to recent approaches.