public List<DigitImage> loadDigitImages() throws IOException {
        List<DigitImage> images = new ArrayList<DigitImage>();

        ByteArrayOutputStream labelBuffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
        ByteArrayOutputStream imageBuffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();

        InputStream labelInputStream = this.getClass().getResourceAsStream(labelFileName);
        InputStream imageInputStream = this.getClass().getResourceAsStream(imageFileName);

        int read;
        byte[] buffer = new byte[16384];

        while((read = labelInputStream.read(buffer, 0, buffer.length)) != -1) {
           labelBuffer.write(buffer, 0, read);
        }

        labelBuffer.flush();

        while((read = imageInputStream.read(buffer, 0, buffer.length)) != -1) {
            imageBuffer.write(buffer, 0, read);
        }

        imageBuffer.flush();

        byte[] labelBytes = labelBuffer.toByteArray();
        byte[] imageBytes = imageBuffer.toByteArray();

        byte[] labelMagic = Arrays.copyOfRange(labelBytes, 0, OFFSET_SIZE);
        byte[] imageMagic = Arrays.copyOfRange(imageBytes, 0, OFFSET_SIZE);

        if(ByteBuffer.wrap(labelMagic).getInt() != LABEL_MAGIC)  {
            throw new IOException("Bad magic number in label file!");
        }

        if(ByteBuffer.wrap(imageMagic).getInt() != IMAGE_MAGIC) {
            throw new IOException("Bad magic number in image file!");
        }

        int numberOfLabels = ByteBuffer.wrap(Arrays.copyOfRange(labelBytes, NUMBER_ITEMS_OFFSET, NUMBER_ITEMS_OFFSET + ITEMS_SIZE)).getInt();
        int numberOfImages = ByteBuffer.wrap(Arrays.copyOfRange(imageBytes, NUMBER_ITEMS_OFFSET, NUMBER_ITEMS_OFFSET + ITEMS_SIZE)).getInt();

        if(numberOfImages != numberOfLabels) {
            throw new IOException("The number of labels and images do not match!");
        }

        int numRows = ByteBuffer.wrap(Arrays.copyOfRange(imageBytes, NUMBER_OF_ROWS_OFFSET, NUMBER_OF_ROWS_OFFSET + ROWS_SIZE)).getInt();
        int numCols = ByteBuffer.wrap(Arrays.copyOfRange(imageBytes, NUMBER_OF_COLUMNS_OFFSET, NUMBER_OF_COLUMNS_OFFSET + COLUMNS_SIZE)).getInt();

        if(numRows != ROWS && numRows != COLUMNS) {
            throw new IOException("Bad image. Rows and columns do not equal " + ROWS + "x" + COLUMNS);
        }

        for(int i = 0; i < numberOfLabels; i++) {
            int label = labelBytes[OFFSET_SIZE + ITEMS_SIZE + i];
            byte[] imageData = Arrays.copyOfRange(imageBytes, (i * IMAGE_SIZE) + IMAGE_OFFSET, (i * IMAGE_SIZE) + IMAGE_OFFSET + IMAGE_SIZE);

            images.add(new DigitImage(label, imageData));
        }

        return images;
    }