Learning Generalizable Semantic Segmentation from Simulation to Real-World Domains with Multi-Resolution Feature Perturbation

Core Concepts

A novel Multi-Resolution Feature Perturbation (MRFP) technique is proposed to enhance the generalizability of deep semantic segmentation models trained on synthetic data to unseen real-world domains.

Abstract

The paper addresses the challenge of domain shift in semantic segmentation, where models trained on synthetic data perform poorly when deployed in real-world scenarios. To address this, the authors propose a novel Multi-Resolution Feature Perturbation (MRFP) technique. MRFP consists of two key components: High-Resolution Feature Perturbation (HRFP): This module uses a randomly initialized overcomplete autoencoder to perturb fine-grained, domain-specific features in the shallow layers of the segmentation model. The decreasing receptive field of the overcomplete network ensures a focus on high-frequency, fine-grained features. Normalized Perturbation (NP+): This technique perturbs the feature channel statistics in the spatial domain, introducing variations in the low-frequency components that correspond to style information. The authors hypothesize that deep models tend to overfit on domain-specific fine-grained features and low-frequency style information. MRFP aims to prevent this overfitting by selectively perturbing these components, encouraging the model to learn more robust, domain-invariant representations. Extensive experiments on various urban scene segmentation datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of MRFP in improving the generalization performance of state-of-the-art segmentation models in single and multi-domain Sim-to-Real settings. MRFP achieves significant improvements over existing domain generalization methods without introducing any additional learnable parameters or objective functions.

Stats

Synthetic datasets: GTAV (24,966 images) and Synthia (9,400 images) Real-world datasets: Cityscapes, Foggy Cityscapes, BDD-100k, Mapillary, Rainy Cityscapes

Quotes

"MRFP not only contributes to style perturbation but also provides control over perturbation of fine-grained features." "HRFP is a plug and play module, and can work with any deep segmentation encoder backbone." "MRFP is a simple, computationally efficient, transferable technique, and thus can be attached to any deep backbone network while adding no additional learnable parameters, nor extra objective functions to optimize in the training process of the base network."

Key Insights Distilled From

MRFP

by Sumanth Udup... at arxiv.org 03-29-2024

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2311.18331.pdf

Deeper Inquiries

How can the proposed MRFP technique be extended to other computer vision tasks beyond semantic segmentation, such as object detection or instance segmentation?

The Multi-Resolution Feature Perturbation (MRFP) technique can be extended to other computer vision tasks by adapting its components to suit the specific requirements of tasks like object detection or instance segmentation. For object detection, the HRFP module can be modified to focus on features relevant to object boundaries and shapes. This can help in improving the generalization of object detectors across different domains by perturbing domain-specific features related to object characteristics. Additionally, the normalized perturbation (NP+) component can be tailored to introduce variations in object textures and styles, enhancing the model's ability to generalize to unseen domains. In the case of instance segmentation, the HRFP module can be adjusted to emphasize features that distinguish between different instances within an image. By perturbing fine-grained instance-specific features, the model can learn to extract domain-invariant representations for accurate instance segmentation across diverse datasets. The NP+ component can also be customized to introduce style variations at the instance level, further improving the model's robustness to domain shifts. Overall, by customizing the HRFP and NP+ modules to target task-specific features and characteristics, the MRFP technique can be effectively extended to a wide range of computer vision tasks beyond semantic segmentation.

What are the potential limitations of the HRFP module in terms of the choice of the overcomplete autoencoder architecture and its impact on the overall performance?

While the HRFP module offers benefits in perturbing domain-specific fine-grained features, there are potential limitations associated with the choice of the overcomplete autoencoder architecture: Computational Complexity: Using an overcomplete autoencoder can increase the computational complexity of the model due to the higher dimensionality of the latent space. This may lead to longer training times and higher resource requirements, impacting the overall performance in terms of efficiency. Overfitting: The overcomplete architecture may be prone to overfitting, especially if not properly regularized. Training an overcomplete model without adequate regularization techniques can result in the model memorizing the training data instead of learning generalizable features, leading to poor performance on unseen domains. Hyperparameter Sensitivity: The choice of hyperparameters for the overcomplete autoencoder, such as the number of hidden units and layers, can significantly impact the performance of the HRFP module. Suboptimal hyperparameter settings may hinder the module's ability to perturb features effectively, affecting the model's generalization capabilities. Interpretability: Overcomplete architectures can be more challenging to interpret and analyze compared to undercomplete models. Understanding the learned representations and the impact of perturbations on these representations may be more complex, potentially limiting the interpretability of the HRFP module. Considering these limitations, it is essential to carefully design and optimize the overcomplete autoencoder architecture within the HRFP module to balance performance improvements with computational efficiency and generalization capabilities.

Can the MRFP technique be combined with other domain generalization approaches, such as meta-learning or adversarial training, to further enhance its effectiveness?

Yes, the MRFP technique can be effectively combined with other domain generalization approaches, such as meta-learning or adversarial training, to enhance its effectiveness in improving model generalization across diverse domains. Here are some ways in which MRFP can be integrated with these approaches: Meta-Learning: By incorporating meta-learning techniques, the MRFP module can adapt more quickly to new domains by learning from a distribution of tasks. Meta-learning can help the model generalize better to unseen domains by leveraging knowledge from previous tasks and adapting the perturbation strategies of MRFP accordingly. Adversarial Training: Adversarial training can be used in conjunction with MRFP to further enhance the model's robustness to domain shifts. Adversarial perturbations can be applied to the feature space in addition to the perturbations introduced by MRFP, creating a more adversarially robust model that can better handle domain-specific variations. Ensemble Methods: Combining MRFP with ensemble methods can improve the model's generalization by leveraging the diversity of multiple models. By training multiple instances of the model with different perturbation strategies within the MRFP module, an ensemble approach can help mitigate the limitations of individual models and enhance overall performance. Self-Supervised Learning: Integrating self-supervised learning techniques with MRFP can further enhance the model's ability to learn domain-invariant representations. Self-supervised tasks can provide additional supervision signals that guide the perturbation process in MRFP, leading to more robust feature learning and improved generalization. By combining MRFP with these complementary approaches, it is possible to create a more robust and adaptable model that can effectively generalize to unseen domains and improve performance across a wide range of computer vision tasks.