Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) applications are developed to recognize and digitize handwritten or machine-printed characters from images or video streams. ICR can interpret complex handwriting styles within documents and forms using machine learning (ML) algorithms such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and recurrent neural networks (RNNs).  ICR applications are used for identity verification, healthcare patient form digitization, handwritten label recognition logistics, financial document processing, and digitizing written responses in educational settings. They generally improve document processing across various industries (e.g., automating manual tasks such as check verification).  In this article, we will learn what ICR is, its importance in the data-driven industry, its evolution, core concepts, and the ML algorithm that powers its capabilities. We will also cover its technical aspects and the algorithm it leverages to make itself smart. This article will enable you to get a deeper understanding of ICR. Let’s get started. Core Concepts of ICR Before learning more, it's crucial to understand the foundational technology behind Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR)—Optical Character Recognition (OCR). OCR converts printed text from documents such as forms and receipts into digitally readable text. This process transforms a physical document into a digital format. Why is OCR Important? Managing physical documents like forms, invoices, and contracts in business environments is space-consuming and time-intensive. OCR technology addresses these challenges by digitizing printed documents for easier editing, searching, and storage. This is beneficial for automating data entry and improving workflows. Example: Consider a real estate law firm overwhelmed with processing numerous property deeds and contracts manually. By implementing OCR, the firm can swiftly digitize these documents, making them editable and significantly reducing manual entry errors. This efficiency gain speeds up their workflow and scales their ability to handle more transactions effectively. OCR:Key Features of OCR Recognizes text from various sources, including scanned documents and image-only PDFs. Converts images of text into editable formats, facilitating access and modification without manual retyping. Uses hardware (scanners) and software to transform printed text into machine-readable text. While OCR offers numerous benefits, it has limitations when dealing with poorly handwritten text. ICR was developed as an advanced form of OCR to address this challenge, using ML and natural language processing (NLP) to interpret handwritten characters more accurately. In the following section, we will discuss some of ICR's features and capabilities. This will give you a better understanding of ICR's usefulness over OCR.  ICR: Key Features Knowing the key features and capabilities will allow you to understand how ICR can be incorporated into your workflow. Here are 12 key features to better understand ICR: Handwriting Recognition: ICR can recognize and interpret handwritten text, including various styles and fonts. Data Extraction: Beyond text, ICR can extract checkboxes, tick marks, and other structured data elements from documents. Multilingual Support: Supports multiple languages, improving its utility in global applications. Improved Accessibility: ICR makes handwritten documents searchable, editable, and retrievable, enhancing data accessibility and usability. Self-Learning: By leveraging machine learning, ICR continuously learns and improves its accuracy over time, adapting to new handwriting styles and formats. Workflow Automation: Facilitates the automation of document processing workflows, which reduces manual data entry errors and improves operational efficiency. ICR Integration Capabilities Document Management Systems (DMS): ICR seamlessly integrates with DMS, streamlining document processing and data entry workflows. Robotic Process Automation (RPA): ICR can be combined with RPA tools to automate data extraction tasks, reducing manual work and improving efficiency. API Integration: ICR systems offer API support (e.g., REST, SOAP) and compatible data formats (e.g., JSON, XML) for easy integration with other applications. ICR Data Types: Types of Data ICR Can Process We have already discussed the capabilities of ICR for processing handwritten documents. Here are examples of the other types of documents that ICR can process: Scanned Documents: Recognizes text from paper documents converted to digital formats. Digital Images and PDFs: Extracts text from digital images and PDF files, whether originally digital or scanned. Structured Data Files: Efficiently processes structured data files like XML, enhancing data usability in various applications. Benefits of ICR Technology Automation and Efficiency: By automating manual data entry tasks, ICR streamlines operations, increases processing speed, and allows employees to focus on higher-value tasks. Scalability and Cost Savings: ICR can handle large volumes of data, scaling with business growth while reducing manual labor costs. Improved Decision-Making: With accurate and easily accessible data, ICR enables informed decision-making and enhances customer experiences. Improved Data Quality: ICR accurately recognizes handwritten text and verifies data, reducing errors and improving overall data quality. Recommended Read: Improving Data Quality Using End-to-End Data Pre-Processing Techniques in Encord Active. In the following sections, we will explore the inner workings of ICR and the key technologies it leverages, such as computer vision (CV), NLP, and deep learning. We will also discuss how these technologies enable ICR to recognize and interpret handwritten text intelligently. ICR Technology: How Does it Work? The workings of ICR can be broken down into seven steps, which lay the foundation for the integration of advanced technologies, such as machine learning algorithms: The diagram shows how ICR works using CNN and RNN Image Capture: Handwritten text is digitized using scanners, cameras, or other digital devices. Preprocessing: This step cleans the image, removes noise, and corrects lighting to prepare it for analysis. Binarization/Segmentation: The image is segmented into individual characters or words, setting the stage for detailed analysis. Feature Extraction: Critical features such as the shape and size of each character are identified to facilitate recognition. Pattern Recognition: Here, advanced machine learning algorithms, including neural networks, classify features into their corresponding characters. Context Analysis: The system analyzes all the words or sentences to understand their meaning and context. Post-processing: Finally, the recognized text is converted into a digital format, ready for use in computers and databases. Let’s learn more about the ML algorithms that power ICR capabilities. ML Algorithms Enhancing ICR ICR has undergone a remarkable transformation because of the advancements in ML algorithms. Previously, ICR relied on rule-based methods to decipher handwritten text, facing challenges in handling diverse writing styles. However, with the emergence of ML, ICR has vastly improved in accuracy and efficiency. Neural Networks Inspired by the human brain, neural networks (NN) excel at tasks like object detection, learning from extensive datasets of labeled handwritten text. However, their true potential is unlocked when dealing with complex data, provided there is enough data to learn from. This image explains the working of neural networks through forward and backward propagation Convolutional Neural Network Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have emerged as a prominent architecture for ICR to address the limitations of traditional neural networks. CNNs specialize in processing image data by identifying local features, edges, and patterns through convolutional layers. This enables CNNs to effectively recognize handwritten characters, even in the presence of noise or variations in writing style, giving ICR an edge over traditional OCR. An overview of how the different layers of CNN works and the patterns they capture  Vision Transformers  Another notable advancement in ICR is using vision transformers (ViTs), which apply the transformer architecture, originally developed for natural language processing, to image data. ViTs use self-attention mechanisms to capture long-range dependencies and context within images, enabling them to understand the relationships between characters and words in handwritten documents. An overview of how transformers work and the patterns they capture The idea behind both CNN and ViT is to capture the details of the textual images provided. ICR systems can handle diverse handwriting styles and fonts by integrating these sophisticated ML algorithms.  This continually improves the accuracy of ICR’s pattern recognition with more data. This has also revolutionized data entry automation, document processing, and other tasks reliant on extracting information from handwritten sources. These technologies have made ICR systems more accurate, versatile, and adaptable, benefiting businesses and organizations across various sectors.  The next section will discuss implementing ICR in your workflow to harness its potential. Tools and Frameworks for ICR This section will focus on the tools and frameworks for implementing ICR in our workflow. Overview of Popular ICR Software and Libraries Let’s start this section with open-sourced tools like Tesseract OCR, a versatile and widely used open-source engine ideal for recognizing handwritten and printed text. Following that, we will briefly discuss commercial tools like ABBYY FineReader as well. Open-source tools Tesseract OCR: This is a versatile, widely-used open-source engine suitable for recognizing both handwritten and printed text. It is particularly beginner-friendly and supports multiple languages. Kraken: A Python-based OCR engine, Kraken is designed for modern OCR tasks, offering cleaner interfaces and better documentation than its predecessors. It supports right-to-left languages and provides advanced model-handling capabilities. Ocropy: Known for its fundamental OCR processes, Ocropy offers a suite of command-line tools for various OCR tasks, though it is less maintained currently. Recommended Read: How to Use OpenCV With Tesseract for Real-Time Text Detection.   Commercial ABBYY FlexiCapture: This platform offers advanced data capture and document processing capabilities that are suitable for both on-premises and cloud deployment. It features robust document classification and data extraction technologies. ReadSoft: Part of the ReadSoft Capture Framework, this tool enhances document workflow efficiency, particularly in invoice processing, through its learning OCR capabilities. Kofax: Known for its comprehensive automation solutions, Kofax combines OCR with document scanning and validation functionalities to streamline data processing. Deployment options Cloud-based Platforms: Tools like ABBYY Vantage, Google Cloud Vision AI, Microsoft Azure AI Vision, and Amazon Textract offer scalable, cloud-based OCR services with extensive model marketplaces and integration capabilities. On-premise Platforms: Solutions like ABBYY FlexiCapture and Sunshine OCR Software provide secure, on-premise deployment options for organizations prioritizing data security. Integration with existing DMS ABBYY Vantage: ABBYY's cloud-based data capture "marketplace" enables seamless integration with various Document Management Systems. Programming Languages and Frameworks for Building ICR Systems Now, let’s talk about the programming language and framework that can help you develop a custom ICR.  Python: With its simplicity and extensive library support, Python is a top choice for developing ICR systems. Libraries like EasyOCR are specifically built using Python. TensorFlow and PyTorch: These frameworks are essential for building deep learning models that enhance ICR capabilities. TensorFlow is known for its robust, scalable deep learning model deployment, while PyTorch offers flexibility in model experimentation and development (but is fast supporting a vast model-serving ecosystem). Integrating ICR with Other Technologies NLP Integration: Combining ICR with NLP enables organizations to extract and analyze insights from handwritten documents efficiently, which is applicable to the finance and healthcare sectors. RPA Integration: By integrating ICR with RPA, organizations can automate repetitive document processing tasks, enhancing efficiency and accuracy across various operational areas. Applications of ICR ICR technology finds significant applications across various sectors, enhancing data management and operational efficiency through automation and accurate data extraction. Healthcare In healthcare, ICR facilitates digitizing patient information by converting handwritten medical records, prescriptions, and forms into digital formats. This automation helps create more accurate clinical documentation and supports decision-making processes.  Additionally, when integrated with NLP, ICR can extract and analyze insights from unstructured handwritten notes to improve patient care and research. Insurance ICR speeds up claims processing by digitizing handwritten policy information. It also plays a crucial role in fraud detection by analyzing handwritten signatures and other personal identifiers, thereby enhancing security and trust. Traffic Management ICR automates the processing of handwritten citations, extracting critical vehicle and driver information. This capability supports more efficient traffic enforcement and reduces manual errors in data entry, resulting in safer and more regulated roadways. Legal Analysis ICR helps legal professionals by automating the extraction of information from handwritten legal documents and notes. By converting these into searchable digital formats, ICR enhances research efficiency and supports more effective case preparation and management. Government Agencies ICR streamlines data entry and document processing, particularly for forms that require manual handling. Integration with RPA technologies further enhances this process, automating repetitive tasks and significantly improving the timeliness and accuracy of public data management. These applications underscore the versatility and transformative potential of ICR technology across different industries, offering substantial improvements in process efficiency and data accuracy. Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR): Key Takeaways ICR makes handwritten documents easier to find, edit, and use. It handles paperwork automatically, helping businesses work faster and with fewer mistakes. It gets smarter over time by using fancy tech like machine learning, natural language processing, and robotic process automation. Advancements in ML and automation will shape future trends in ICR. These trends include enhancements in deep learning OCR for deciphering complex characters and unclear handwriting. They will also benefit from multilingual support for global needs and integration with AI and automation technologies to refine document processing workflows.  Additionally, the evolution of Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) will see ICR integration to automate processing and enhance document analysis while human oversight ensures accuracy in critical tasks. Scalable cloud solutions will handle large document volumes efficiently, and industry-specific solutions tailored to sectors like healthcare and finance will emerge. 

Robotic arms can be found in various industries, from manufacturing and assembly to healthcare and space exploration. These machines have the ability to perform complex tasks with precision and are often deployed in environments that are hazardous or inaccessible to humans. However, traditional robotic arm control methodology, which relies on predefined trajectories or joint-level commands, can be limited in their adaptability and responsiveness to dynamic environments. Vision-based controls are used to overcome this obstacle. Computer vision techniques are used to enable the robotic arms to perceive their surroundings and respond accordingly. By integrating vision feedback, robotic arms can adapt to changes in their environment, track moving objects, and navigate complex scenarios with increased flexibility and autonomy. Here we will discuss: Understanding robotic arms Vision based control of robotic arms and its benefits Vision based control techniques proposed method for Implementing Vision-Based Control in a 6 DoF Robotic Arm Practical applications And its challenges. Understanding 6 Degrees of Freedom (6 DoF) of Robotic Arms Robotic arms are characterized by their degrees of freedom (DoF), which determine the range of motion and dexterity they possess. The term "degrees of freedom" refers to the independent movements or axes along which a robotic arm can move. A 6 DoF robotic arm is capable of moving in six independent directions, allowing for a broad range of positioning and orientation possibilities. The 6 DoF in a robotic arm can be broken down into two distinct categories in the cartesian coordinate system - Positioning (3 DoF): Linear movement along the X-axis (left/right) Linear movement along the Y-axis (forward/backward) Linear movement along the Z-axis (up/down) Orientation (3 DoF): Rotation around the X-axis (roll) Rotation around the Y-axis (pitch) Rotation around the Z-axis (yaw) Categorization based on Cartesian Coordinates - 6 DoF Robotics Arm With these six independent movements, a 6 DoF robotics arm can reach virtually any point within its workspace and orient itself in any desired direction. This mimics the dexterity of human arms, enabling them to perform tasks that were previously challenging for traditional robots with fewer degrees of freedom. Vision-based Control: An Overview Vision-based control, also known as visual servoing, is a technique in robotics where feedback from vision sensors is used to control the movement of a robot. This approach is particularly useful for robotic arms, which often need to interact with their environment in a precise and flexible manner. The main advantage of vision-based control is that it allows the robot to respond to changes in its environment in real-time. This is important in many applications, such as assembly tasks, where the robot needs to adapt to variations in the position and orientation of the parts. Watch the latest video of Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot using computer vision to pick up a target object and place it at the target location. Vision-based control systems typically consist of a camera (or multiple cameras) that provides visual feedback, a processing system that interprets this feedback, and a control system that uses this information for the optimization of the mobile robot’s movements. For more information, read the paper published in the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA 2022) available on Arxiv: Ex-DoF: Expansion of Action Degree-of-Freedom with Virtual Camera Rotation for Omnidirectional Image   Vision-based Control Techniques There are several common approaches to vision-based control, each with its own strengths and weaknesses: Position-Based Visual Servoing (PBVS) In PBVS, the 3D position of the object relative to the camera is estimated and used to control the robot. The goal is to minimize the error between the current and desired position of the object in the camera frame. This requires a good model of the camera and the object, and it can be sensitive to errors in the model or the position estimation. Image-Based Visual Servoing (IBVS) IBVS directly uses the image coordinates of the object to control the robot. The goal is to minimize the error between the current and desired position of the object in the image. This approach can be more robust to model errors, but it can also be more challenging to implement due to the non-linear relationship between the image coordinates and the robot’s movements. Hybrid Visual Servoing This approach combines elements of PBVS and IBVS. It uses both the image coordinates and the estimated 3D position of the object to control the robot. This can provide a good balance between robustness and precision. 2D/3D Visual Servoing This approach uses a 3D model of the object along with a 2D image dataset to control the robot. This can provide high precision and flexibility, but it is dependent on image processing techniques, and the rendered 3D model of the object, and hence can be computationally intensive. Deep Learning-Based Visual Servoing This is a more recent approach that uses machine learning techniques to learn the relationship between the image data and the robot’s movements. This can be very flexible and adaptive but requires a large amount of training data and can be computationally intensive. Implementing Vision-Based Control in a 6 DoF Robotic Arm Implementing vision-based control in a robotic arm with 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) involves several steps. Here’s a general overview of the process: Sensor Setup The first step is to set up the vision sensor (usually a camera) in a position where it can clearly see the workspace of the robotic arm. The sensor should be calibrated to ensure accurate measurements. Object Detection and Tracking The vision system needs to be able to detect and track the objects that the robotic arm will interact with. This can be done using various computer vision techniques, such as color-based detection, shape-based detection, or machine learning-based detection. For more information, read the blog The Complete Guide to Object Tracking [Tutorial]   Motion Planning The vision system determines the desired position and orientation of the end effector based on the visual feedback. This could be the position of an object to be picked up by the gripper, a location to move to, or a path to follow. Control Algorithm Implementation The control algorithm uses the desired position and the end effector's current position to calculate the robotic arm's necessary movements. This is where the specific vision-based control techniques (PBVS, IBVS, etc.) or neural networks are implemented. Inverse Kinematics Calculation The control commands calculated by the control algorithm are in the form of a desired position and orientation for the end effector. The Inverse Kinematics (IK) process is used to convert this into joint angles that can be applied to the robotic arm. Control Command Execution The calculated joint angles are sent to the motors of the robotic arm, allowing it to move. The vision system continues to track the end effector and the object, providing continuous feedback for the control system. Error Correction The vision system checks the result of the movement and calculates any error between the desired and actual position of the end effector. This error is fed back into the control algorithm for validation and to correct future movements. This process continues in a loop, allowing the robotic arm to respond in real-time to changes in its environment.  For more information, read the blog What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?   Real-world Applications of Vision-Based Control in a 6 DoF Robotic Arm Precision Manufacturing In industries such as automotive, aerospace, and electronics, the accuracy and precision of assembly is very important. A 6 DoF robotic arm, equipped with a vision system, can identify, pick, and place components with high precision and speed. Medical Applications In the medical field, vision-based control in a 6 DoF robotic arm has great potential. For instance, in surgical procedures, a 6 DoF robotic arm can assist surgeons in performing complex operations with high precision. The vision system can provide real-time imaging of the surgical area, enabling the robot to make precise movements and adjustments based on the surgeon’s commands. Moreover, in rehabilitation therapy, a 6 DoF robotic arm can help patients regain motor skills. The vision system can monitor the patient’s movements and provide feedback to the robot, allowing it to adjust the therapy program dynamically. Applications in Space In space missions, a 6 DoF robotic arm with vision-based control can be used for berthing applications. The robotic arm can assist in docking spacecraft together in orbit. The vision system can identify docking ports and guide the robotic arm to align and connect the spacecraft accurately. This is particularly useful in constructing and maintaining large structures in space, such as the International Space Station. Inspection and Quality Control In manufacturing industries, a 6 DoF robotic arm with vision-based control can also be used for inspection and quality control. The vision system can inspect the manufactured products for defects, and the robotic arm can remove the defective products from the production line. This ensures that only high-quality products reach the customers. Search and Rescue The robotic arm can navigate through difficult terrains and tight spaces, and the vision system can help locate the victims. This can significantly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of search and rescue operations. These are just a few examples of the many real-world applications of vision-based control in a 6 DoF robotic arm. As technology continues to advance, we can expect to see even more innovative uses of this versatile robotic system. For more information, read the blog Top 8 Applications of Computer Vision in Robotics   Challenges of Vision-Based Control in a 6 DoF Robotic Arm Lighting Conditions One of the significant challenges in vision-based control is dealing with varying lighting conditions. Changes in light intensity and direction can affect the robot’s ability to accurately identify and locate objects. This is particularly problematic in outdoor environments where lighting conditions can change rapidly. Occlusion Occlusion is another challenge in vision-based control. If an object of interest is partially or fully blocked by another object, the vision system may not be able to accurately identify or locate it. This can affect the robot’s ability to perform tasks such as picking and placing objects. Real-Time Processing Vision-based control requires real-time processing of visual data to guide the robot’s movements. This can be computationally intensive, particularly when dealing with high-resolution images or complex environments. It requires powerful processors and efficient algorithms to ensure timely and accurate control. Calibration The vision system and the robotic arm need to be accurately calibrated to ensure precise control. Any errors in calibration can lead to inaccuracies in object identification, location, and robot movements. Calibration can be a complex and time-consuming process, particularly for 6 DoF robotic arms that have multiple joints and degrees of freedom. Vision-based Control of Robotic Arm: What’s Next? Advanced Machine Learning Algorithms Machine learning algorithms play an important role in vision-based control systems as we saw above. They enable the robot to learn from experience and improve its performance over time. In the future, with the increase in robust vision language models, we can expect to see more advanced machine learning algorithms that can handle complex tasks with greater accuracy and efficiency. To know more about the Vision Language Models, read the blog Guide to Vision-Language Models (VLMs)   Improved Sensor Technology The quality of the vision system depends largely on the quality of the sensors. Future advancements in sensor technology could lead to more accurate and reliable vision systems. This could include sensors that can capture more detailed images, work in a wider range of lighting conditions, or even detect other properties such as temperature or pressure. Integration with Other Technologies Vision-based control systems could be integrated with other technologies to enhance their capabilities. For example, they could be combined with haptic feedback systems to allow the robot to feel the objects it is manipulating. This could enable more delicate and precise movements. Greater Autonomy As vision-based control systems become more sophisticated, we can expect to see robotic arms that can operate with greater autonomy. This could include the ability to plan and execute complex tasks without human intervention, or to adapt to unexpected changes in the environment. If you want to find more papers related to this topic, you can read the international journal: Applied Intelligent Control and Perception in Robotics and Automation.   Vision-based Control of Robotic Arm: Key Takeaways 6 Degrees of Freedom (6 DoF) Robotic Arms: Offering high dexterity, these arms mimic human versatility, crucial for precise tasks. Vision-based Control: Using feedback from vision sensors, robotic arms adapt in real-time, enhancing responsiveness. Real-world Applications: From precision manufacturing to space exploration, vision-based control enables tasks in diverse fields, improving efficiency and safety. Challenges and Future Directions: Overcoming lighting variations, occlusion, and real-time processing challenges pave the way for future advancements like improved sensors and the use of artificial intelligence.

Foundation models have markedly advanced computer vision, a field that has transitioned from simple pattern recognition to sophisticated systems capable of complex visual analysis. Advances in neural networks, particularly deep learning, have accelerated this evolution by improving the ability of applications to interpret and interact with their visual surroundings. With the emergence of foundation models—large-scale AI models trained on extensive datasets—there is a shift towards more adaptable and scalable solutions in computer vision. These models, like OpenAI's CLIP, are already trained to recognize many visual patterns. They can do various tasks, like image classification, object detection, and image captioning, with minimal additional training. Foundation models are changing how AI is developed because they are flexible and efficient. Multiple tasks can be done with a single, complete model, which saves developers time and money. This method makes work easier and helps the models do better on different tasks, setting the stage for more big steps in computer vision. This article will explore the impact of foundational models in computer vision. We will examine their architectures, trace their evolution, and showcase their application through case studies in image classification, object detection, and image captioning.  We'll discuss their broader impact on the field and look ahead to the exciting future of foundation models in AI.    What are Foundation Models? Foundation models are a big change in AI. They move away from specialized systems and toward more generalist frameworks that can get data from huge, diverse, and unlabeled datasets and use it for different tasks with minimal additional training. Pre-trained models like GPT-3, BERT, and DALL-E have absorbed wide-ranging knowledge from huge datasets, enabling them to understand broad aspects of the world. This preliminary training allows these models to be fine-tuned for specific applications, avoiding the need to build new models from scratch for each task. The Transformer architecture, commonly associated with these models, excels at processing data sequences through attention mechanisms that dynamically evaluate the importance of different inputs. This design enables the models to generate coherent and contextually relevant outputs across various data types, including text and images. Foundation models are designed to be a common starting point customized to perform well on a wide range of downstream tasks, a strong base of modern AI systems. Key Examples of Foundation Models in AI Transformer-based Large Language Models (LLMs): Transformer-based LLMs, such as GPT-3 and BERT, have significantly advanced the capabilities of AI in natural language processing. These models utilize a transformer architecture that allows for highly effective parallel processing and handling of sequential data. They are pivotal due to their ability to learn from vast amounts of data and generalize across various tasks without task-specific tuning, dramatically enhancing efficiency and flexibility in AI. applications​. Transformer Architecture CLIP (Contrastive Language–Image Pre-training): CLIP by OpenAI is another foundational model designed to understand images in conjunction with textual descriptions. This multimodal model can perform tasks that require linking images with relevant text, making it exceptionally useful in applications that span both visual and textual data. Its ability to generalize from natural language to visual concepts without direct training on specific visual tasks marks a significant advancement in AI's capabilities​​. CLIP Training Recommended Read: Top 8 Alternatives to the Open AI CLIP Model.   BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers): BERT is revolutionary in the NLP domain. Developed by Google, BERT's bidirectional training mechanism allows it to understand the context of a word based on all surrounding words, unlike previous models, which processed text linearly.  This capability has set new standards for NLP tasks, including question-answering and language translation. BERT's effectiveness is further enhanced by techniques like masked language modeling, which involves predicting randomly masked words in a sentence, providing a robust way to learn deep contextual relationships within the text. The model's flexibility is evident from its various adaptations, such as RoBERTa and DistilBERT, which adjust its architecture for optimized performance or efficiency​. Comparison of BERT Architectures  Architectural Evolution of Foundation Models Dual-Encoder Architecture Dual-encoder architectures employ two separate encoders, each handling a different type of input—textual, visual, or from different languages. Each encoder independently processes its input, and its outputs are aligned using a contrastive loss function, which synchronizes the embeddings from both encoders. This method is invaluable for tasks like image-text and multilingual information retrieval, where distinct processing pathways are necessary for each modality or language. Fusion Architecture Fusion architectures take a step further by integrating the outputs of individual encoders into a single, cohesive representation. This approach allows for more intricate interactions between modalities, leading to improved performance on tasks that demand a nuanced understanding of the combined data, such as visual question-answering and multimodal sentiment analysis. Encoder-Decoder Architecture Encoder-decoder architectures are traditionally used for sequence-to-sequence tasks and have been adapted for vision-language applications. These models encode the input into a latent representation, which the decoder then uses to generate an output sequence.  Approaches like cross-modal attention mechanisms have been introduced to improve the model's ability to focus on salient parts of the input, improving the relevance and coherence of the generated text. Recommended Read: Guide to Vision-Language Models (VLMs).   Adapted Large Language Models (LLMs) Adapted LLMs involve modifying pre-existing language models to accommodate new modalities or tasks by incorporating new encoders, such as visual encoders. This adaptation allows models like GPT and BERT to handle visual content understanding and generation, bridging NLP and computer vision applications. Comparison of different E-D architectures The evolution of foundation model architectures has significantly expanded the capabilities of AI systems in handling vision-language tasks. Each architectural type offers unique advantages and caters to different application requirements, pushing the boundaries of what is achievable with multimodal AI. Recommended Webinar: Vision Language Models: Powering the Next Chapter in AI (On-Demand).   Training Objectives and Methodologies in Foundation Models Foundation models utilize diverse training objectives and methodologies, primarily focusing on contrastive and generative objectives. Each plays a critical role in guiding the development and effectiveness of these models across various applications. Contrastive Objectives Contrastive objectives aim to teach models to distinguish between similar and dissimilar examples. For instance, a contrastive image-text model might be trained to maximize the similarity between an image and a matching caption while minimizing the similarity between that image and unrelated captions. This teaches the model to create meaningful representations of both visual and textual data. Here are the methodologies used in this training objective: Contrastive Learning: This approach is essential for learning high-quality representations by maximizing the similarity between related pairs and minimizing it between unrelated pairs. It's extensively used in models like CoCa, which uses a dual-encoder system to align text and image representations. Unlabeled Data Utilization: Contrastive learning is particularly valuable for using abundant unlabeled data, which is crucial given the high cost and effort required to curate large-scale labeled datasets. Across Domains: Contrastive learning improves the ability of foundation models to work across domains without using labeled data by letting them adapt to different tasks. Recommended Read: 5 Ways to Improve the Quality of Labeled Data. Generative Objectives These objectives focus on having the model create new data based on its understanding.  For example, an image captioning model might have a decoder that takes the encoded representation of an image and generates a textual description, word by word. Here are some examples: Encoder-Decoder Architectures: These architectures generate new data based on learned representations. The CoCa model, for example, uses an encoder to process images and a decoder to generate text, facilitating detailed image captioning and comprehensive vision-language understanding. Fine-Grained Representations: Generative objectives are crucial for managing detailed representations for tasks that require a deep understanding of content, such as intricate image descriptions or detailed text generation. Integrated Approaches Modern foundation models often combine contrastive and generative objectives. This allows them to learn to discriminate between different datasets and generate realistic and contextually appropriate outputs. Here are some examples of the methods: Combining Objectives: Modern models often blend contrastive and generative objectives to leverage their strengths. This hybrid strategy enables training models that distinguish between data types and generate coherent, contextually accurate outputs. CoCa Model: The CoCa model is an example of this unified approach. It has a decoupled decoder design that separately improves contrastive and generative goals. This makes the model better at both alignment and generation tasks. Subsuming Capabilities: This method lets models like CoCa combine the best features of models good at zero-shot learning tasks (e.g.,  CLIP) and models good at multimodal image-text tasks (e.g., SIMVLM) into a single model. Recommended Webinar: How to Build Semantic Visual Search with ChatGPT & CLIP. Foundation models, through their diverse training objectives and methodologies, are pivotal in developing general AI. Due to their adaptability and effectiveness in addressing diverse and challenging AI problems, they excel in various applications, from simple classification tasks to complex multimodal interactions. Foundation Models in Action: Transforming Computer Vision Tasks Foundation models have significantly influenced a range of computer vision tasks, leveraging their extensive pre-trained knowledge to enhance performance across various applications. Here are some notable case studies: Scene Change Detection in Videos CLIP, a foundation model from OpenAI, has been utilized to detect video scene changes, such as differentiating between game and advertisement segments during sports broadcasts. This is achieved by evaluating the similarity between consecutive frames. Object Detection and Classification As developed by Deci, YOLO-NAS is a foundation model that achieves state-of-the-art performance in real-time object detection, effectively balancing accuracy and speed. It is suitable for applications like traffic monitoring and automated retail systems. Medical Imaging EfficientNet, another foundation model, has been successfully applied in the healthcare sector, particularly in medical image analysis. Its ability to maintain high accuracy while managing computational demands makes it an invaluable tool for diagnosing diseases from medical imaging data such as X-rays and MRIs. Retail and E-Commerce The BLIP-2 vision language model facilitates automatic product tagging and image indexing, which is crucial for e-commerce platforms. This function automatically generates product tags and descriptions based on their images, enhancing searchability and catalogue management. Content Analysis in Media and Entertainment The OWL-ViT model is employed for content analysis tasks in the media and entertainment industry. It supports open-vocabulary object detection, aiding video summarization, scene recognition, and content moderation. It ensures that digital platforms can efficiently categorize and manage a vast array of visual content. These examples illustrate how foundation models are integrated into real-world applications, revolutionizing how machines understand and interact with visual data across various industries. Recommended Read: The Full Guide to Foundation Models.   Innovations in Model Architecture: Transforming Computer Vision Computer vision has improved greatly due to the development of model architectures such as YOLO-NAS, Mask2Former, DETR, and ConvNeXt, which perform well on various vision tasks. YOLO-NAS YOLO-NAS, developed by Deci AI, upped the game for object detection tasks by outperforming other YOLO models. It uses neural architecture search (NAS) to optimize the trade-off between accuracy and latency. It has enhanced quantization support, making it suitable for real-time edge-device applications. YOLO-NAS has shown superior performance in detecting small objects and improving localization accuracy, which is crucial for autonomous driving and real-time surveillance applications.  YOLO-NAS by DeciAI See Also: YOLO Object Detection Explained: Evolution, Algorithm, and Applications.   Mask2Former Mask2Former is a versatile transformer-based architecture capable of addressing various image segmentation tasks, including panoptic, instance, and semantic segmentation.  Its key innovation is masked attention, which extracts localized features within predicted mask regions. This model simplifies the research effort by handling multiple segmentation tasks and outperforms specialized architectures on several datasets. Mask2Former Architecture DETR DETR (Detection Transformer) makes the object detection pipeline easier by treating it as a direct set prediction problem. This means many common parts, such as non-maximum suppression, are unnecessary. It uses a transformer encoder-decoder architecture and performs well in accuracy and runtime as the well-known Faster R-CNN baseline on the COCO dataset. DETR Architecture See Also: Mask-RCNN vs. Personalized-SAM: Comparing Two Object Segmentation Models.   ConvNeXt ConvNeXt modernizes traditional convolutional neural network (CNN) designs by incorporating strategies from transformers, significantly boosting performance and scalability.  This model overcomes the constraints of previous CNNs by integrating features such as larger kernel sizes and LayerScale, which stabilize training and enhance the network's capacity for representation. ConvNeXt Architecture GroundingDINO GroundingDINO elevates self-supervised learning by deepening computer vision's ability to understand visual content without relying on labelled datasets. It utilizes knowledge distillation, where a smaller model is trained to emulate a more sophisticated, pre-trained "teacher" model.  This technique enables precise object identification and segmentation within images, significantly increasing the efficiency of training vision models on extensive, unlabeled datasets. GroundingDINO Architecture Recommended Read: Visual Foundation Models vs. State-of-the-Art: Exploring Zero-Shot Object Segmentation with Grounding-DINO and SAM.   Achievements in Accuracy, Efficiency, and Versatility of Foundation Models in Computer Vision Achievements in Accuracy Foundation models like EfficientNet have set new benchmarks in image classification accuracy. EfficientNet-B7, for instance, achieves state-of-the-art accuracy on ImageNet while being considerably smaller and faster than previous models. Vision Transformers (ViTs) have also demonstrated exceptional performance, often surpassing traditional CNNs in extensive image recognition tasks. These models have been pivotal in advancing the accuracy of computer vision systems, enabling them to perform high-quality image analysis across various domains. Achievements in Efficiency Hardware optimization has greatly enhanced the efficiency of foundation models. Deci's foundation models, for example, are optimized for specific hardware, ensuring efficient performance and resource utilization. This optimization is crucial for real-time applications that require low latency, such as object detection in video surveillance, where models like YOLO-NAS provide state-of-the-art performance. Achievements in Versatility Foundation models have shown remarkable versatility across a range of computer vision tasks. Models like Mask2Former and OWL-ViT handle segmentation tasks without task-specific modifications, showcasing their adaptability.  Additionally, the CLIP model by OpenAI has demonstrated its ability to understand and align visual and textual representations for versatile applications such as image-text retrieval and open-ended object detection. Models like DALL-E-3 have expanded the limits of generative image synthesis, creating detailed and contextually appropriate images from text descriptions, thus opening new avenues for both creative and practical applications. Empowering New Capabilities in Computer Vision The integration of foundation models has opened up numerous new capabilities in computer vision: Enhanced Multimodal Understanding: Models like CLIP have significantly improved the understanding of relationships between different data types, aiding tasks such as image-text retrieval and open-ended object detection. Active Learning and Few-Shot Learning: Foundation models have made active learning strategies more effective by using pre-trained embeddings to label informative samples selectively. This is useful when there are few annotation resources available. Generative Applications: Generative models like DALL-E-3 have expanded the limits of image synthesis, creating detailed and contextually appropriate images from text descriptions, thus opening new avenues for both creative and practical applications. Recommended Webinar (On-Demand): Are Visual Foundation Models (VFMs) on par with SOTA?   The Future of Foundation Models in AI Developments in model architectures and training objectives are expected to improve the capabilities of foundation models to make them more adaptable and effective across various domains. Here's a detailed look at the potential future advancements and the key challenges that need to be addressed: Enhanced Model Architectures and Training Methods: Ongoing improvements in model architectures, such as transformer-based designs and more sophisticated training methods, will likely lead to more powerful and efficient foundation models. Multimodal Capabilities: There is an increasing focus on developing foundation models that can handle various data types beyond text and images, such as audio and video. This will improve their applicability for more complex, multimodal tasks. Efficient Training Processes: Advances in training processes are expected to improve the efficiency of foundation models, enabling them to utilize broader data sets more effectively and adapt more quickly to new tasks. Meta’s recent Llama 3 release is an example. Generative AI for Complex Tasks: The application of generative AI in tasks like video generation highlights a shift towards more dynamic AI systems capable of creating high-quality, diverse outputs. Open-Source Development and Collaboration: Collaborative efforts and open-source development are crucial for driving innovation in foundation model technology and helping to democratize access to advanced AI tools. Foundational Models in AI: Key Takeaways Foundation models have significantly transformed the computer vision field, enhancing accuracy, efficiency, and versatility. They have introduced new capabilities such as sophisticated image and video generation, advanced object detection, and improvements in real-time processing. The integration of foundation models is projected to broaden and deepen across various technological ecosystems, with profound impacts anticipated in sectors like healthcare, legal, and education. These developments indicate a future where AI will support and drive innovation and operational efficiencies across industries, leaving an indelible mark on technology and society.

Here’s a scenario you’ve likely encountered: You spent months building your model, increased your F1 score above 90%, convinced all stakeholders to launch it, and... poof! As soon as your model sees real-world data, its performance drops below what you expected. This is a common production machine learning (ML) problem for many teams—not just yours. It can also be a very frustrating experience for computer vision (CV) engineers, ML teams, and data scientists. There are many potential factors behind these. Problems could stem from the quality of the production data, the design of the production pipelines, the model itself, or operational hurdles the system faces in production. In this article, you will learn the four (4) reasons why computer vision models fail in production and thoroughly examine the ML lifecycle stages where they occur. These reasons show you the most common production CV and data science problems. Knowing their causes may help you prevent, mitigate, or fix them. You’ll also see the various strategies for addressing these problems at each step. Let’s jump right into it! Why do Models Fail in Production? The ML lifecycle governs how ML models are developed and shipped; it involves sourcing data, data exploration and preparation (data cleaning and EDA), model training, and model deployment, where users can consume the model predictions. These processes are interdependent, as an error in one stage could affect the corresponding stages, resulting in a model that doesn’t perform well—or completely fails—in production. Organizations develop machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) models to add value to their businesses. When errors occur at any ML development stage, they can lead to production models failing, costing businesses capital, human resources, and opportunities to satisfy customer expectations.  Consider the implications of poorly labeling data for a CV model after data collection. Or the model has an inherent bias—it could invariably affect results in a production environment. It is noteworthy that the problem can start when businesses do not have precise reasons or objectives for developing and deploying machine learning models, which can cripple the process before it begins. Assuming the organization has passed all stages and deployed its model, the errors we often see that lead to models failing in production include: Mislabeling data, which can train models on incorrect information. ML engineers and CV teams that prioritize data quality only at later stages rather than as a foundational practice. Ignoring the drift in data distribution over time can make models outdated or irrelevant. Implementing minimal or no validation (quality assurance) steps risks unnoticed errors progressing to production. Viewing model deployment as the final goal, neglecting necessary ongoing monitoring and adjustments. Let’s look deeper at these errors and why they are the top reasons we see production models fail. Reason #1: Data Labeling Errors Data labeling is the foundation for training machine learning models, particularly supervised learning, where models learn patterns directly from labeled data. This involves humans or AI systems assigning informative labels to raw data—whether it be images, videos, or DICOM—to provide context that enables models to learn.   AI algorithms also synthesize labeled data. Check out our guide on synthetic data and why it is useful. Despite its importance, data labeling is prone to errors, primarily because it often relies on human annotators. These errors can compromise a model's accuracy by teaching it incorrect patterns. Consider a scenario in a computer vision project to identify objects in images from data sources. Even a small percentage of mislabeled images can lead the model to associate incorrect features with an object. This could mean the model makes wrong predictions in production. Potential Solution: Automated Labeling Error Detection A potential solution is adopting tools and frameworks that automatically detect labeling errors. These tools analyze labeling patterns to identify outliers or inconsistent labels, helping annotators revise and refine the data. An example is Encord Active. Encord Active is one of three products in the Encord platform (the others are Annotate and Index) that includes features to find failure modes in your data, labels, and model predictions. A common data labeling issue is the border closeness of the annotations. Training data with many border-proximate annotations can lead to poor model generalization.  If a model is frequently exposed to partially visible objects during training, it might not perform well when presented with fully visible objects in a deployment scenario. This can affect the model's accuracy and reliability in production. Let’s see how Encord Active can help you, for instance, identify border-proximate annotations. Step 1: Select your Project. Step 2: Under the “Explorer” dashboard, find the “Labels” tab. Encord Active automatically finds patterns in the data and labels to surface potential issues with the label. Step 3: On the right pane, click on one of the issues EA found to filter your data and labels by it. In this case, “Border Closeness”; click on it. “Relative Area.” - Identifies annotations that are too close to image borders. Images with a Border Proximity score of 1 are flagged as too close to the border. Step 4: Select one of the images to inspect and validate the issue. Here’s a GIF with the steps: You will notice that EA also shows you the model’s predictions alongside the annotations, so you can visually inspect the annotation issue and resulting prediction. Step 5: Visually inspect the top images EA flags and use the Collections feature to curate them. There are a few approaches you could take after creating the Collections: Exclude the images that are border-proximate from the training data if the complete structure of the object is crucial for your application. This prevents the model from learning from incomplete data, which could lead to inaccuracies in object detection. Send the Collection to annotators for review. Recommended Read: 5 Ways to Improve the Quality of Labeled Data. Reason #2: Poor Data Quality The foundation of any ML model's success lies in the quality of the data it's trained on. High-quality data is characterized by its accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and relevance to the business problem ("fit for purpose"). Several common issues can compromise data quality: Duplicate Images: They can artificially increase the frequency of particular features or patterns in the training data. This gives the model a false impression of these features' importance, causing overfitting. Noise in Images: Blur, distortion, poor lighting, or irrelevant background objects can mask important image features, hindering the model's ability to learn and recognize relevant patterns. Unrepresentative Data: When the training dataset doesn't accurately reflect the diversity of real-world scenarios, the model can develop biases. For example, a facial recognition system trained mainly on images of people with lighter skin tones may perform poorly on individuals with darker skin tones. Limited Data Variation: A model trained on insufficiently diverse data (including duplicates and near-duplicates) will struggle to adapt to new or slightly different images in production. For example, if a self-driving car system is trained on images taken in sunny weather, it might fail in rainy or snowy conditions. Potential Solution: Data Curation One way to tackle poor data quality, especially after collection, is to curate good quality data. Here is how to use Encord Active to automatically detect and classify duplicates in your set. Curate Duplicate Images Your testing and validation sets might contain duplicate training images that inflate the performance metrics. This makes the model appear better than it is, which could lead to false confidence about its real-world capabilities. Step 1: Navigate to the Explorer dashboard → Data tab On the right-hand pane, you will notice Encord Active has automatically detected common data quality issues based on the metrics it computed from the data. See an overview of the issues EA can detect on this documentation page. Step 2: Under the issues found, click on Duplicates to see the images EA flags as duplicates and near-duplicates with uniqueness scores of 0.0 to 0.00001. There are two steps you could take to solve this issue: Carefully remove duplicates, especially when dealing with imbalanced datasets, to avoid skewing the class distribution further. If duplicates cannot be fully removed (e.g., to maintain the original distribution of rare cases), use data augmentation techniques to introduce variations within the set of duplicates themselves. This can help mitigate some of the overfitting effects. Step 3: Under the Data tab, curate duplicates you want to remove or use augmentation techniques to improve by selecting them. Click Add to a Collection → Name the collection ‘Duplicates’ and add a description. See the complete steps: Once the duplicates are in the Collection, you can use the tag to filter them out of your training or validation data. If relevant, you can also create a new dataset to apply the data augmentation techniques. Other solutions could include: Implement Robust Data Validation Checks: Use automated tools that continuously validate data accuracy, consistency, and completeness at the entry point (ingestion) and throughout the data pipeline. Adopt a Centralized Data Management Platform: A unified view of data across sources (e.g., data lakes) can help identify discrepancies early and simplify access for CV engineers (or DataOps teams) to maintain data integrity. See Also: Improving Data Quality Using End-to-End Data Pre-Processing Techniques in Encord Active. Reason #3: Data Drift Data drift occurs when the statistical properties of the real-world images a model encounters in production change over time, diverging from the samples it was trained on. Drift can happen due to various factors, including: Concept Drift: The underlying relationships between features and the target variable change. For example, imagine a model trained to detect spam emails. The features that characterize spam (certain keywords, sender domains) can evolve over time. Covariate Shift: The input feature distribution changes while the relationship to the target variable remains unchanged. For instance, a self-driving car vision system trained in summer might see a different distribution of images (snowy roads, different leaf colors) in winter. Prior Probability Shift: The overall frequency of different classes changes. For example, a medical image classification model trained for a certain rare disease may encounter it more frequently as its prevalence changes in the population. If you want to dig deeper into the causes of drifts, check out the “Data Distribution Shifts and Monitoring” article. Potential Solution: Monitoring Data Drift There are two steps you could take to address data drift: Use tools that monitor the model's performance and the input data distribution. Look for shifts in metrics and statistical properties over time. Collect new data representing current conditions and retrain the model at appropriate intervals. This can be done regularly or triggered by alerts when significant drift is detected. You can achieve both within Encord: Step 1: Create the Dataset on Annotate to log your input data for training or production. If your data is on a cloud platform, check out one of the data integrations to see if it works with your stack. Step 2: Create an Ontology to define the structure of the dataset. Step 3: Create an Annotate Project based on your dataset and the ontology. Ensure the project also includes Workflows because some features in Encord Active only support projects that include workflows. Step 4: Import your Annotate Project to Active. This will allow you to import the data, ground truth, and any custom metrics to evaluate your data quality. See how it’s done in the video tutorial on the documentation. Step 5: Select the Project → Import your Model Predictions. There are two steps to inspect the issues with the input data: Use the analytics view to get a statistical summary of the data. Use the issues found by Encord Active to manually inspect where your model is struggling. Step 6: On the Explorer dashboard → Data tab → Analytics View. Step 7: Under the Metric Distribution chart, select a quality metric to assess the distribution of your input data on. In this example, “Diversity"  applies algorithms to rank images from easy to hard samples to annotate. Easy samples have lower scores, while hard samples have higher scores. Step 8: On the right-hand pane, click on Dark. Navigate back to Grid View → Click on one of the images to inspect the ground truth (if available) vs. model predictions. Observe that the poor lightning could have caused the model to misidentify the toy bear as a person. (Of course, other reasons, such as class imbalance, could cause the model to misclassify the object.)  You can inspect the class balance on the Analytics View → Class Distribution chart. Nice! Recommended Read: How to Detect Data Drift on Datasets. There are other ways to manage data drift, including the following approaches: Adaptive Learning: Consider online learning techniques where the model continuously updates itself based on new data without full retraining. Note that this is still an active area of research with challenges in computer vision. Domain Adaptation: If collecting substantial amounts of labeled data from the new environment is not feasible, use domain adaptation techniques to bridge the gap between the old and new domains. Recommended Read:A Practical Guide to Active Learning for Computer Vision. Reason #4: Thinking Deployment is the Final Step (No Observability) Many teams mistakenly treat deployment as the finish line, which is one reason machine learning projects fail in production. However, it's crucial to remember that this is simply one stage in a continuous cycle. Models in production often degrade over time due to factors such as data drift (changes in input data distribution) or model drift (changes in the underlying relationships the model was trained on). Neglecting post-deployment maintenance invites model staleness and eventual failure. This is where MLOps (Machine Learning Operations) becomes essential. MLOps provides practices and technologies to monitor, maintain, and govern ML systems in production. Potential Solution: Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) The core principle of MLOps is ensuring your model provides continuous business value while in production. How teams operationalize ML varies, but some key practices include: Model Monitoring: Implement monitoring tools to track performance metrics (accuracy, precision, etc.) and automatically alert you to degradation. Consider a feedback loop to trigger retraining processes where necessary, either for real-time or batch deployment. Logging: Even if full MLOps tools aren't initially feasible, start by logging model predictions and comparing them against ground truth, like we showed above with Encord. This offers early detection of potential issues. Management and Governance: Establish reproducible ML pipelines for continuous training (CT) and automate model deployment. From the start, consider regulatory compliance issues in your industry. Recommended Read:Model Drift: Best Practices to Improve ML Model Performance. Key Takeaways: 4 Reasons Computer Vision Models Fail in Production Remember that model deployment is not the last step. Do not waste time on a model only to have it fail a few days, weeks, or months later. ML systems differ across teams and organizations, but most failures are common. If you study your ML system, you’ll likely see that some of the reasons your model fails in production are similar to those listed in this article: 1. Data labelling errors 2. Poor data quality 3. Data drift in production 4. Thinking deployment is the final step The goal is for you to understand these failures and learn the best practices to solve or avoid them. You’d also realize that while most failure modes are data-centric, others are technology-related and involve team practices, culture, and available resources.

Grok-1.5V's leading score of 68.7% in RealWorldQA indicates its remarkable performance compared to GPT-4V, Claude 3, and Gemini Pro 1.5. X.ai specifically developed the RealWorldQA benchmark to measure this spatial reasoning capability. With its Grok series, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence laboratory X.ai has consistently pushed the limits of large language models (LLMs). Grok-1 was released with a window size of an impressive 128,000 tokens (larger than many other LLMs) with a Mixture of Expert (MoE) architecture.  Grok-1.5V builds on top of it. This new multimodal model expands the capabilities of traditional text-based LLMs to encompass visual understanding. It interprets language and can process various image types, making breakthroughs in complex reasoning tasks.  The model combines linguistic skills with the ability to analyze and interpret diverse visual inputs, such as documents, diagrams, and photographs.  Grok-1.5V is a move towards AI systems that can interact in a way that connects the physical and digital worlds, closely resembling human perception. Let’s learn all about it in this deep-dive explainer! Short on time? No worries, we have a TL;DR. TL;DR Grok-1.5V is a new AI model from X.ai that can understand both text and images. It can answer your questions about pictures, analyze documents, and even understand real-world spatial relationships. This is a big leap forward for AI, but there are ethical concerns to consider, like bias and misinformation. Overall, Grok-1.5V is a promising step towards more versatile and powerful AI tools. Grok-1.5 Vision: Capabilities Grok-1.5V builds upon the strong language foundation of Grok-1, extending its abilities with visual understanding. Let's cover some of its key capabilities: Grok-1.5V: Processing Visual Information One of the most remarkable features of Grok-1.5V is its ability to process and understand a wide range of visual information. This includes: Documents: Analyzing complex documents, understanding diagrams, and extracting key information from tables and charts. Screenshots: Interpreting user interface elements or code snippets within screenshots. Photographs: Understanding the content and relationships between objects within photographs. This opens up a world of possibilities for applications that require advanced visual understanding, such as document analysis, image captioning, and object recognition. Grok-1.5V's visual processing prowess is not limited to static images. The model can also handle dynamic visual content, such as videos and animations, for tasks like video analysis, action recognition, and scene understanding.  This makes Grok-1.5V useful in fields like entertainment, security, and surveillance. Grok-1.5V: Multi-disciplinary Reasoning Another key strength of Grok-1.5V is its ability to perform multi-disciplinary reasoning. The model can draw insights from various domains, combining visual and textual information to arrive at complex conclusions. For example, Grok-1.5V could: Answer questions about scientific diagrams, combining your knowledge of scientific concepts with visual diagram analysis. Follow instructions, including text and images, enabling more complex task execution. This is particularly valuable in medical imaging, where the model can analyze medical scans and patient records to provide comprehensive diagnostic insights. New to medical imaging? Here is our in-depth guide to running medical imaging experiments. Grok-1.5V's multi-disciplinary reasoning also extends to tasks that require creative problem-solving.  For instance, the model can generate code from hand-drawn sketches, bridging the gap between the visual and programming domains. This is exciting for intuitive programming interfaces and rapid prototyping. Grok-1.5 V: Real-world Spatial Understanding One of Grok-1.5V's most significant advancements is its ability to understand and reason about spatial relationships within the physical world. X.ai has introduced the RealWorldQA benchmark specifically to measure this capability.  The benchmark comprises over 760 image-based questions and answers that challenge AI models to understand and interact with the physical world. Grok-1.5V's strong performance on this benchmark indicates its potential for applications involving: Robotics and Navigation Augmented Reality Visual Question Answering in real-world settings Grok-1.5V's spatial understanding also extends to tasks that require common-sense reasoning. For example, the model can provide home maintenance advice based on images of household problems, showcasing its ability to apply real-world knowledge to practical situations. Multimodal models hold immense potential for changing industries, and computer vision experts must understand their significance. Check out our on-demand webinar on how multimodal foundation models can fast-track data labeling to build high-performance AI models in these industries. Model Evaluation Performance Benchmarking Across Grok-1.5V, GPT-4V, Claude 3 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus, and Gemini Pro 1.5 To truly appreciate Grok-1.5V's capabilities, it is essential to compare its performance against other leading AI models. In this section, we will examine how Grok-1.5V compares against GPT-4V, Claude 3 Sonnet, Claude 3 Opus, and Gemini Pro 1.5 across various benchmarks that assess different aspects of visual and multimodal understanding. Comparison of Grok-1.5V against other SoTA models in a zero-shot setting without chain-of-thought prompting. MMU: Multi-discipline Benchmark The Multi-discipline Benchmark (MMU) evaluates an AI model's reasoning ability across multiple domains, combining visual and textual information to solve complex problems. Grok-1.5V outperforms its competitors in this benchmark with superior multi-disciplinary reasoning capabilities.  Mathvista: Math Benchmark The Mathvista benchmark assesses an AI model's mathematical reasoning abilities, focusing on tasks like equation solving, graph interpretation, and geometric reasoning.  Grok-1.5V performs exceptionally well on this benchmark, which shows proficiency in understanding and manipulating mathematical concepts. It can interpret mathematical notation and apply relevant principles to solve problems. AI2D: Diagram Understanding Benchmark The AI2D benchmark for visual question-answering evaluates an AI model's ability to understand and interpret diagrams, flowcharts, and other visual representations of information. Grok-1.5V excels in this benchmark; it can extract meaningful insights from complex visual structures. TextVQA: Text Reading Benchmark The TextVQA benchmark assesses an AI model's ability to read and comprehend text within images, such as signs, labels, and captions. Grok-1.5V excels at OCR and contextual understanding on this benchmark. The model's ability to extract and interpret textual information from images opens up possibilities for applications in document analysis, accessibility, and language translation. ChartQA: Charts Interpreting Benchmark The ChartQA benchmark evaluates an AI model's ability to understand and interpret various charts, including bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts. Grok-1.5V outperforms its competitors on this benchmark, showcasing its ability to extract insights from visual data representations.  The model's performance on ChartQA highlights its potential for applications in data analysis, business intelligence, and financial forecasting. DocVQA: Documents Rendering Benchmark The DocVQA benchmark assesses a model's ability to understand and interpret structured documents, such as forms, invoices, and reports. Grok-1.5V does very well on this benchmark, showing how well it understands documents and extracts information.  The model's performance on DocVQA positions it as a valuable tool for automating document processing tasks in various industries, including healthcare, finance, and legal services. RealWorldQA: Real-world Understanding Benchmark The RealWorldQA benchmark, introduced alongside Grok-1.5V, evaluates an AI model's ability to understand and interact with the physical world. Because Grok-1.5V did so well on this benchmark, it shows how advanced its spatial reasoning and real-world understanding skills are. 🔥 NEW RELEASE: We released TTI-Eval (text-to-image evaluation), an open-source library for evaluating zero-shot classification models like CLIP and domain-specific ones like BioCLIP against your (or HF) datasets to estimate how well the model will perform. Get started with it on GitHub, and do ⭐️ the repo if it's awesome. 🔥 Grok-1.5V: Model Availability Currently, Grok-1.5V is in a preview stage and accessible to a limited group of early testers. This includes existing Grok users and subscribers to X.ai's Premium+ service. This phased rollout allows X.ai to gather valuable feedback, fine-tune the model, and ensure responsible deployment. Here are ways to potentially gain access to Grok-1.5V: Existing Grok Users: If you're already using Grok's language modeling capabilities, keep an eye out for announcements from X.ai regarding the Grok-1.5V rollout. X.ai Premium+ Subscribers: Consider subscribing to X.ai's premium service, which may provide early access to Grok-1.5V. Developer Community: Stay engaged with X.ai's developer community and online forums for future updates on the broader public availability of Grok-1.5V. X.ai has not yet released a specific timeline for wider public access to Grok-1.5V. However, they will likely gradually increase the pool of users as the model matures and demonstrates robustness in diverse applications. Grok-1.5 Vision: Ethical Concerns As Grok-1.5V opens up new possibilities, moral concerns become the most important ones. Here are some key concerns to keep in mind: Grok Chatbot Instructs Criminal Actions Like any vision-language model (VLM), Grok-1.5V could be misused to generate harmful or unethical content, including instructions for criminal activities. X.ai must implement robust safety measures and content moderation to minimize such risks. This might involve: Thorough fine-tuning on datasets that promote safe and ethical behavior. Implementing filters to detect and block harmful text or image generation attempts. Providing clear guidelines and usage policies to users. Spread of Misinformation and Disinformation Grok-1.5V's ability to generate realistic responses and visual understanding could make it a tool for creating deceptive content ("deepfakes"). Proactive misinformation detection strategies and educating users about responsible use are essential. Biases in the Training Data Large-scale models are often trained on massive datasets that may reflect societal unconscious biases. Such biases can perpetuate harmful stereotypes or discriminatory behavior. Mitigating this requires: Careful curation and analysis of Grok-1.5V's training data. Transparent reporting of any identified biases or limitations. Ongoing bias monitoring and evaluation, even after deployment. See Also: Data Curation in Computer Vision. Unintended Consequences While Grok-1.5V has the potential for many positive applications, it's important to anticipate potential negative consequences. For example, misuse of surveillance or manipulating public opinion could have serious societal ramifications. Addressing these ethical concerns requires an ongoing dialogue between X.ai, the AI community, and the broader public. X.ai's commitment to transparency and responsible AI development will be essential in building trust and ensuring that Grok-1.5V serves as a tool for good. Grok-1.5 Vision: What's Next? X.ai's release of Grok-1.5V signals a promising shift towards more versatile and comprehensive AI models. Here's what we might anticipate soon: Advancements in Understanding and Multimodal Capabilities Expect improvements in how Grok-1.5V processes and integrates information across different modalities. This could include: Understanding Video: Going beyond images to analyze video content for richer insights. Audio Integration: Enabling models to understand and respond to speech and other audio inputs. Enhanced Reasoning: Developing even more sophisticated reasoning abilities across text, images, and other modalities. Grok-1.5V: Building Beneficial AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) X.ai has expressed a long-term goal of developing beneficial Artificial General Intelligence. Grok-1.5V is a crucial step in that direction. We can expect its multimodal capabilities to contribute towards models that exhibit: Adaptability: AGI should be able to tackle a wide range of tasks and learn new skills quickly. Multimodal models train on more diverse data for adaptability. Common Sense: Integrating real-world spatial understanding into language models is essential for developing AI with common sense reasoning capabilities. Safety and Alignment: Future iterations will likely focus on ensuring AGI is aligned with human values and operates safely within our world. Even though Grok 1.5-V is a big deal, the road to real AGI is still a long way off. Grok-1.5V serves as an example of the advancements made in multimodal AI, which pave the way for increasingly intelligent systems that can perceive, comprehend, and interact with the world in previously unthinkable ways. Grok-1.5 Vision: Key Takeaways Grok-1.5 Vision (Grok-1.5V) from X.ai is a big step forward in developing vision-language models. By introducing multimodal capabilities, Grok-1.5V can process and understand information from text and images, documents, and other visual formats. This opens doors for various applications, including document analysis, real-world question answering, and potentially even creative tasks. Grok-1.5V's performance on various benchmarks showcases its strengths, particularly in spatial reasoning and diagram understanding. While the model is in a preview stage, X.ai's commitment to responsible AI development gives hope for a future where Grok-1.5V and similar models are utilized ethically and safely.  The potential for advancements in understanding and the path toward building beneficial AGI makes Grok-1.5V a development to watch closely as the field of AI continues to evolve. 🔥 NEW RELEASE: We released TTI-Eval (text-to-image evaluation), an open-source library for evaluating zero-shot classification models like CLIP and domain-specific ones like BioCLIP against your (or HF) datasets to estimate how well the model will perform. Get started with it on GitHub, and do ⭐️ the repo if it's awesome. 🔥

While image classification and object recognition remain the mainstream computer vision (CV) tasks, recent frameworks also address image segmentation methods to handle more complex scenarios. Enter panoptic segmentation: a CV task that merges the comprehensive understanding of semantic segmentation (categorizing each pixel into a class) with the precise object differentiation of instance segmentation (identifying individual object instances).  Since its inception in 2017, panoptic segmentation has rapidly gained traction, as evidenced by over 200 research papers. This indicates its potential to transform how machines perceive and interact with their environments. This method is pivotal for applications requiring a detailed understanding of both 'stuff' (like sky, water, or grass) and 'things' (such as cars, animals, or people) in an image. However, the leap to panoptic segmentation introduces complex challenges, including the need for precise, pixel-level annotations, handling the sheer computational demands of processing detailed images, and developing models that can effectively learn from such rich data. This article introduces the essential considerations before adopting a panoptic segmentation tool and surveys the leading platforms in 2024. Our guide aims to assist you in selecting the most suitable solution for your vision systems, ensuring they can interpret complex environments with unprecedented clarity.  We also give an overview of the top platforms, as listed below, to help you choose the best solution for the job. Encord iMerit Segments.ai Killi Technology Superb AI Mindkosh Super Annotate Hasty Labelbox Panoptic Segmentation Overview In computer vision (CV), image segmentation aims to label each pixel within an image to identify objects more accurately. The annotation method helps build computer vision models for use cases like self-driving cars, healthcare, and robotics. The technique consists of semantic, instance, and panoptic segmentation tasks. Let’s quickly discuss each in more detail. Semantic Segmentation Semantic segmentation assigns a label to each pixel within an image. It aims to detect ‘stuff’ - regions with similar patterns - and distinguish between different entities in a single image. For example, it will draw separate segmentation masks for people, cars, traffic lights, and trees in an image displaying objects on the road. What an Autonomous Vehicle Sees | Encord Annotate. Instance Segmentation Instance segmentation detects ‘things’ - countable objects - and distinguishes between each instance of the same object in an image. For example, instance segmentation will identify each person within an image as a separate entity, whereas semantic segmentation will assign the same class label to everyone in the image. Semantic (left) vs Instance Segmentation (right) Panoptic Segmentation Panoptic segmentation combines semantic and instance segmentation to produce accurate pixel-level annotations for more complex computer vision applications. It detects ‘stuff’ and ‘things’ for a richer scene understanding by merging classification and detection algorithms. Semantic vs Instance vs Panoptic Segmentation Want to learn more about Panoptic Segmentation? Here is a list of top 5 V7 Alternatives for a detailed understanding   Panoptic Segmentation Challenges While panoptic segmentation is a powerful technique to improve visual understanding, it poses multiple challenges due to the following reasons: Overlapping Objects: Segmenting overlapping objects is difficult as the algorithms cannot identify object boundaries to generate accurate masks. Image Quality: Low image quality makes detecting things and classifying stuff challenging due to blur, occlusion, and unclear shapes. Lack of Training Data: Building segmentation models requires extensive, high-quality training datasets to comprehensively understand everyday objects. Developing such models from scratch is tedious and costly. Due to these issues, you must search for a suitable platform that offers pre-built segmentation frameworks and tools to efficiently label visual data of all types and formats through user-friendly interfaces. Important Factors for Segmentation Tools Investing in a segmentation platform is a strategic decision that requires careful analysis of the available solutions. However, with so many platforms flooding the market, finding the best tool for the job becomes overwhelming. So, this list below highlights the factors that will help you select the most suitable annotation tool based on your specific requirements. Annotation Methods: Multiple annotation methods, including bitmasks, polygons, bounding boxes, and key points, help you annotate and segment various data types and address complex labeling scenarios. Support for Multi-Modal Data: To ensure efficient data processing, support for images, sequences, videos, and point clouds is necessary. Scalability: Select a tool that can quickly scale up with minimal overhead. Consider its ability to manage large-scale projects and heavy workloads. Collaboration: Collaborative tools can streamline workflows by allowing teams to work on shared projects and speed up delivery. Automation: Tools with automated labeling techniques can boost annotation speed and quality. User Interface (UI): An easy-to-use interface allows you to use a platform to its full potential. Integrability: Integration with cloud storage platforms, plugins, and modeling frameworks improves functionality and lets you address domain-specific issues. Data Security: Ensure the tool complies with established international security standards to protect data privacy. Price: A labeling tool’s feature set must justify its cost by offering sufficient functionality in an affordable price range. Don’t know how to get the best image segmentation results? Read our image segmentation for computer vision best practice guide to learn more Panoptic Segmentation Tools Considering the earlier segmentation challenges, businesses must invest in a robust image annotation platform with state-of-the-art (SoTA) segmentation functionality. The list below provides an overview of the top panoptic segmentation tools ranked according to the abovementioned factors to help you with your search. 1. Encord Encord is an end-to-end, data-centric computer vision platform that improves panoptic segmentation workflows across data, labeling, and model evaluation. The platform includes three products that enable different parts of the panoptic segmentation workflow (including annotation, data management, and performance assessment).  Encord Annotate: Includes basic and advanced features for labeling image and video datasets for multiple CV use cases. Index: Helps curate multi-modal data for effective management. Encord Active: Easily evaluate your segmentation model’s panoptic mask quality with task-specific metrics (like mean Panoptic Quality). Key Features Supported Annotation Methods: Encord includes a bitmask annotation and lock feature to prevent segmentation and masks from overlapping. This helps with pixel-perfect accuracy for your segmentation tasks. Supported Data Types: The platform supports images, image sequences, videos, and Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM). Scalability: The platform allows you to upload up to 500,000 images (recommended), 100 GB in size, and 5 million labels per project. You can also upload up to 200,000 frames per video (2 hours at 30 frames per second) for each project. See more guidelines for scalability in the documentation. Collaboration: Users can quickly collaborate with their team members through shared annotation projects that let you create custom workflows for quality assurance steps. Automation - Segment Anything Model (SAM): Starting your annotation process can be time-consuming, especially for complex images. The SAM integration offers a one-click solution to create initial annotations, speeding up the annotation process with high accuracy. User Interface:  Encord lets you surgically label overlapping objects at pixel level 5x faster with enhanced zooming functionality and image loading through the Label Editor UI. Also, the Python SDK lets experienced users perform segmentation tasks programmatically. Quality Metrics: You can assess annotation performance through robust panoptic quality metrics to quickly identify areas of improvement. Integrability: You can integrate with popular cloud storage platforms such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Open Telekom Cloud OSS to import datasets. Data Security: Encord complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standards. It uses advanced encryption protocols to ensure data security and privacy. Best for Teams looking for an enterprise-grade image and video annotation solution with advanced features to produce high-quality panoptic segmentation features. Pricing Encord has apay-per-user pricing model with Starter, Team, and Enterprise options. 2. iMerit iMerit is a data labeling tool that offers Ango Hub as its primary annotation platform for images, videos, and textual data. It features auto-labeling functionality with interactive tools for detecting object boundaries. iMerit Key Features Annotation Methods: iMerit supports bounding boxes, polygons, polylines, key points, and segmentation. Users can draw polygons around objects to create segmentation masks. Supported Data Types: The platform supports images, videos, audio, textual, and DICOM data. Collaboration: iMerit lets you create shared projects and assign team members relevant roles, such as project owner, manager, annotator, and reviewer. It also allows for real-time troubleshooting, where annotators can directly notify project managers in case of issues. Automation: Plugins allow you to use pre-built models for data labeling. User Interface: The platform features an intuitive UI to create segmentation masks with holes using the polygon tool. It also features analytical reports to assess labeling performance against benchmarks for informed decision-making. Data Security: iMerit complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Best For Teams looking for a labeling solution to build CV applications for manufacturing and agricultural use cases. Pricing Pricing is not publicly available. 3. Segments.ai Segments.ai is a 3D labeling platform that allows you to annotate data from multiple sensors, such as cameras, radar, and LiDAR, through a unified interface. Its sensor fusion capabilities let users view 2D and 3D data simultaneously for better context. Segments.ai Key Features Annotation Methods: The tool supports segmentation, bounding boxes, cuboids, polylines, polygons, and key points. Supported Data Types: Segments.ai supports images and 3D point-cloud data. Collaboration: Users can add multiple collaborators to a project and assign them the roles of manager, reviewer, manager, or administrator. Automation: The platform comprises advanced segmentation models that let you create segmentation masks with a single click. User Interface: Segments.ai's UI is easy to navigate, and it uses multiple drawing tools, such as polygons and brushes, to specify segmentation masks. It also features a Python SDK to help you manage data programmatically. Data Security: Segments.ai complies with the ISO 27001 standards. Best For Teams looking for a labeling solution for developing autonomous driving and robotics applications. Pricing Segments.ai offers a Team, Scale, and Enterprise version. 4. Kili Kili helps you label image and video data through batch processing and automated tools. It also offers evaluation tools to assess the performance of large language models (LLMs). Kili Key Features Annotation Methods: Kili supports bounding boxes, optical character recognition (OCR), cuboids, and semantic segmentation. It features an interactive click tool to adjust segmentation masks for different objects manually. Supported Data Types: The platform supports text, image, and video data. Collaboration: Users can add new members to labeling projects with relevant user roles. Automation: Kili allows you to use the Segment Anything Model (SAM) for high-quality segmentation and ChatGPT for pre-labeling textual data. User Interface: The platform's user-friendly interface for creating segmentation masks lets you define center points and adjust corners for more precision. Data Security: Kili is SOC 2-compliant. Best For Teams looking for a solution to create training for LLMs. Pricing Kili charges based on data usage. 5. Superb AI Superb AI is an end-to-end solution for training and deploying AI models. It offers data curation and annotation features and the ability to use machine learning (ML) models for faster labeling. SuperbAI Key Features Annotation Methods: Superb Label supports bounding boxes, polygons, polylines, and cuboids. Users can draw polygons around objects to create segmentation masks. Supported Data Types: The platform supports image, video, and point cloud data. Collaboration: The tool features project management workflows that let you assign roles to team members for different labeling tasks. Automation: The Auto-Label features enable you to select pre-built models to annotate more than 100 objects. User Interface: The UI allows you to create precise segmentation masks through the polygon tool with features to define accurate vertices. Data Security: SuperbAI complies with the SOC and ISO 27001 standards. Best for Teams looking for a solution to develop and deploy models. Pricing Pricing is not publicly available. 6. Mindkosh Mindkosh is a data labeling platform that offers AI-based annotation tools to label images, videos, and point cloud data. Its interactive segmentation functionality allows users to specify regions of interest they want to segment surgically. Mindkosh Key Features Annotation Methods: The platform supports bounding boxes, polygons, segmentation, cuboids, and key points. Supported Data Types: Mindkosh supports image, video, and point cloud data. Collaboration: Users benefit from shared workspaces and projects that let them assign labeling tasks to multiple users. Automation: The Magic Segment tool allows you to create segmentation masks automatically through a few clicks. User Interface: The interface comprises organized panels and a polygon tool to create segmentation masks. Data Security: Mindkosh uses the AWS infrastructure to host its application, making the platform compliant with all the security standards that AWS supports, including ISO 27001, SOC 1, and SOC 2. Best For Teams looking for a segmentation tool at the beginner level. Pricing Pricing is not publicly available. 7. SuperAnnotate SuperAnnotate is a data management platform that lets you create training data for CV and natural language processing (NLP) tasks. It also helps you build automated pipelines through its built-in neural networks, webhooks, and Python SDK. SuperAnnotate Key Features Annotation Methods: SuperAnnotate supports bounding boxes, key points, and segmentation. It uses SAM to create accurate segmentation maps. Supported Data Types: The tool supports image, video, text, and audio data. Collaboration: The platform allows you to create shared projects and collaborate with stakeholders for task review and distribution. Automation: Users can fine-tune base models on custom training data to automate the labeling process. User Interface: SuperAnnotate features an interactive UI with easy-to-follow options, magic select, and polygon tools for quick segmentation. Data Security: SuperAnnotate complies with SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001 standards. Best For Teams looking for a solution that helps them implement MLOps pipelines. Pricing Pricing is not publicly available. 8. Hasty Hasty is a lightweight annotation tool that uses AI models to label your data and manage quality assurance workflows. It features a model playground that lets you experiment with state-of-the-art deep-learning models to compare labeling output using different configurations. Hasty Key Features Annotation Methods: The tool supports object detection, image classification, and semantic and instance segmentation methods. Supported Data Types: Hasty supports image and video data. Scalability: The platform’s active learning pipelines make it suitable for labeling extensive datasets. Automation: Hasty features AI-assisted labeling and automated consensus scoring for faster annotation and error resolution. User Interface: It offers a user-friendly interface for creating models to annotate data. Data Security: Hasty complies with the ISO 27001 standards. Best For Teams looking for a quick solution to label small-scale image datasets. Pricing Pricing is not publicly available. 9. Labelbox Labelbox is a data curation, annotation, and model evaluation platform. It features SoTA foundation models, reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) functionality, and analytical reports to assess labeling quality. LabelBox Key Features Annotation Methods: Labelbox supports bounding boxes, cuboids, polygons, polylines, key points, and segmentation masks. Supported Data Types: The platform supports images, videos, text, and audio data. Collaboration: Labelbox lets you create project-based groups with team members having specialized roles according to their expertise. Automation: The AutoSegment tool lets you create masks for individual objects to perform instance segmentation tasks. User Interface: The platform features an easy-to-navigate, no-code interface for labeling data and creating segmentation masks. Data Security: Labelbox complies with the GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC2, HIPAA, CCPA, DSS, NIST, and U.S. Government standards. Best For Teams looking for a data management solution that integrates with the latest SOTA CV and LLM models. Pricing The tool offers a Free, Starter, and Enterprise version. Panoptic Segmentation Tools: Key Takeaways As the field of computer vision expands to solve real-world problems, data annotation becomes challenging due to the rising volume and variety of data. The trend calls for robust annotation and segmentation platforms to help organizations of all sizes efficiently manage labeling processes for extensive datasets with minimal overhead. Below are some of the key points to remember regarding segmentation tools. Segmentation: Building segmentation modes from scratch is challenging due to poor data quality and lack of training data. Users need efficient tools to make the segmentation task easier. Factors to Consider: Advanced panoptic, instance, and semantic segmentation features. Support for multi-modal data and collaborative tools is essential when investing in a segmentation platform. Top Panoptic Segmentation Tools: Encord, iMerit, and Segments.ai are popular solutions offering automated segmentation functionality with robust collaborative features.

In this article, you will learn about the top 10 open-source Computer Vision repositories on GitHub. We discuss repository formats, their content, key learnings, and proficiency levels the repo caters to. The goal is to guide researchers, practitioners, and enthusiasts interested in exploring the latest advancements in Computer Vision. You will gain insights into the most influential open-source CV repositories to stay up-to-date with cutting-edge technology and potentially incorporate these resources into your projects. Readers can expect a comprehensive overview of the top Computer Vision repositories, including detailed descriptions of their features and functionalities.  The article will also highlight key trends and developments in the field, offering valuable insights for those looking to enhance their knowledge and skills in Computer Vision.  Here’s a list of the repositories we’re going to discuss: Awesome Computer Vision Segment Anything Model (SAM) Visual Instruction Tuning (LLaVA) LearnOpenCV Papers With Code Microsoft ComputerVision recipes Awesome-Deep-Vision Awesome transformer with ComputerVision CVPR 2023 Papers with Code Face Recognition   What is GitHub? GitHub provides developers with a shared environment in which they can contribute code, collaborate on projects, and monitor changes. It also serves as a repository for open-source projects, allowing easy access to code libraries and resources created by the global developer community.   Factors to Evaluate a Github Repository’s Health Before we list the top repositories for Computer Vision (CV), it is essential to understand how to determine a GitHub repository's health. The list below highlights a few factors you should consider to assess a repository’s reliability and sustainability: Level of Activity: Assess the frequency of updates by checking the number of commits, issues resolved, and pull requests. Contribution: Check the number of developers contributing to the repository. A large number of contributors signifies diverse community support. Documentation: Determine documentation quality by checking the availability of detailed readme files, support documents, tutorials, and links to relevant external research papers. New Releases: Examine the frequency of new releases. A higher frequency indicates continuous development. Responsiveness: Review how often the repository authors respond to issues raised by users. High responsiveness implies that the authors actively monitor the repository to identify and fix problems.  Stars Received: Stars on GitHub indicate a repository's popularity and credibility within the developer community. Active contributors often attract more stars, showcasing their value and impact. Top 10 GitHub Repositories for Computer Vision (CV) Open source repositories play a crucial role in CV by providing a platform for researchers and developers to collaborate, share, and improve upon existing algorithms and models.  These repositories host codebases, datasets, and documentation, making them valuable resources for enthusiasts, developers, engineers, and researchers. Let us delve into the top 10 repositories available on GitHub for use in Computer Vision. Disclaimer: Some of the numbers below may have changed after we published this blog post. Check the repository links to get a sense of the most recent numbers.   #1 Awesome Computer Vision The awesome-php project inspired the Awesome Computer Vision repository, which aims to provide a carefully curated list of significant content related to open-source Computer Vision tools.  Awesome Computer Vision Repository Repository Format You can expect to find resources on image recognition, object detection, semantic segmentation, and feature extraction. It also includes materials related to specific Computer Vision applications like facial recognition, autonomous vehicles, and medical image analysis. Repository Contents The repository is organized into various sections, each focusing on a specific aspect of Computer Vision.  Books and Courses: Classic Computer Vision textbooks and courses covering foundational principles on object recognition, computational photography, convex optimization, statistical learning, and visual recognition. Research Papers and Conferences: This section covers research from conferences published by CVPapers, SIGGRAPH Papers, NIPS papers, and survey papers from Visionbib. Tools: It includes annotation tools such as LabelME and specialized libraries for feature detection, semantic segmentation, contour detection, nearest-neighbor search, image captioning, and visual tracking. Datasets: PASCAL VOC dataset, Ground Truth Stixel dataset, MPI-Sintel Optical Flow dataset, HOLLYWOOD2 Dataset, UCF Sports Action Data Set, Image Deblurring, etc. Pre-trained Models: CV models used to build applications involving license plate detection, fire, face, and mask detectors, among others. Blogs: OpenCV, Learn OpenCV, Tombone's Computer Vision Blog, Computer Vision for Dummies, Andrej Karpathy’s blog, Computer Vision Basics with Python Keras, and OpenCV. Key Learnings Visual Computing: Use the repo to understand the core techniques and applications of visual computing across various industries. Convex Optimization: Grasp this critical mathematical framework to enhance your algorithmic efficiency and accuracy in CV tasks. Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM): Explore the integration of SLAM in robotics and AR/VR to map and interact with dynamic environments. Single-view Spatial Understanding: Learn about deriving 3D insights from 2D imagery to advance AR and spatial analysis applications. Efficient Data Searching: Leverage nearest neighbor search for enhanced image categorization and pattern recognition performance. Aerial Image Analysis: Apply segmentation techniques to aerial imagery for detailed environmental and urban assessment. Proficiency Level Aimed at individuals with an intermediate to advanced understanding of Computer Vision. Commits: 206 | Stars: 19.8k | Forks: 4.1k | Author: Jia-Bin Huang | Repository Link. #2 SegmentAnything Model (SAM) segment-anything is maintained by Meta AI. The Segment Anything Model (SAM) is designed to produce high-quality object masks from input prompts such as points or boxes. Trained on an extensive dataset of 11 million images and 1.1 billion masks, SAM exhibits strong zero-shot performance on various segmentation tasks.  segment-anything repository Repository Format The ReadMe.md file clearly mentions guides for installing these and running the model from prompts. Running SAM from this repo requires Python 3.8 or higher, PyTorch 1.7 or higher, and TorchVision 0.8 or higher. Repository Content The segment-anything repository provides code, links, datasets, etc. for running inference with the SegmentAnything Model (SAM). Here’s a concise summary of the content in the segment-anything repository: This repository provides: Code for running inference with SAM. Links to download trained model checkpoints. Downloadable dataset of images and masks used to train the model. Example notebooks demonstrating SAM usage. Lightweight mask decoder is exportable to the ONNX format for specialized environments. Key Learnings Some of the key learnings one can gain from the segment-anything repository are: Understanding Object Segmentation: Learn about object segmentation techniques and how to generate high-quality masks for objects in images. Explore using input prompts (such as points or boxes) to guide mask generation. Practical Usage of SAM: Install and use Segment Anything Model (SAM) for zero-shot segmentation tasks. Explore provided example notebooks to apply SAM to real-world images. Advanced Techniques: For more experienced users, explore exporting SAM’s lightweight mask decoder to ONNX format for specialized environments. Learn how to fine-tune the Segment Anything Model (SAM) through our comprehensive guide.   Proficiency Level The Segment Anything Model (SAM) is accessible to users with intermediate to advanced Python, PyTorch, and TorchVision proficiency. Here’s a concise breakdown for users of different proficiency levels: Beginner | Install and Run: If you’re new to SAM, follow installation instructions, download a model checkpoint, and use the provided code snippets to generate masks from input prompts or entire images. Intermediate | Explore Notebooks: Dive into example notebooks to understand advanced usage, experiment with prompts, and explore SAM’s capabilities. Advanced | ONNX Export: For advanced users, consider exporting SAM’s lightweight mask decoder to ONNX format for specialized environments supporting ONNX runtime. Commits: 46 | Stars: 42.4k | Forks: 5k | Author: Meta AI Research | Repository Link. #3 Visual Instruction Tuning (LLaVA) Repository The LLaVA (Large Language and Vision Assistant) repository, developed by Haotian Liu, focuses on Visual Instruction Tuning. It aims to enhance large language and vision models, reaching capabilities comparable to GPT-4V and beyond.  LLaVA demonstrates impressive multimodal chat abilities, sometimes even exhibiting behaviors similar to multimodal GPT-4 on unseen images and instructions. The project has seen several releases with unique features and applications, including LLaVA-NeXT, LLaVA-Plus, and LLaVA-Interactive. Visual Instruction Tuning (LLaVA)  Repository Format The content in the LLaVA repository is primarily Python-based. The repository contains code, models, and other resources related to Visual Instruction Tuning. The Python files (*.py) are used to implement, train, and evaluate the models. Additionally, there may be other formats, such as Markdown for documentation, JSON for configuration files, and text files for logs or instructions. Repository Content LLaVA is a project focusing on visual instruction tuning for large language and vision models with GPT-4 level capabilities. The repository contains the following: LLaVA-NeXT: The latest release, LLaVA-NeXT (LLaVA-1.6), has additional scaling to LLaVA-1.5 and outperforms Gemini Pro on some benchmarks. It can now process 4x more pixels and perform more tasks/applications. LLaVA-Plus: This version of LLaVA can plug and learn to use skills. LLaVA-Interactive: This release allows for an all-in-one demo for Image Chat, Segmentation, and Generation. LLaVA-1.5: This version of LLaVA achieved state-of-the-art results on 11 benchmarks, with simple modifications to the original LLaVA. Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF): LLaVA has been improved with RLHF to improve fact grounding and reduce hallucination. Key Learnings The LLaVA repository offers valuable insights in the domain of Visual Instruction Tuning. Some key takeaways include: Enhancing Multimodal Models: LLaVA focuses on improving large language and vision models to achieve capabilities comparable to GPT-4V and beyond. Impressive Multimodal Chat Abilities: LLaVA demonstrates remarkable performance, even on unseen images and instructions, showcasing its potential for multimodal tasks. Release Variants: The project has seen several releases, including LLaVA-NeXT, LLaVA-Plus, and LLaVA-Interactive, each introducing unique features and applications. Proficiency Level Catered towards intermediate and advanced levels Computer Vision engineers building vision-language applications. Commits: 446 | Stars: 14k | Forks: 1.5k | Author : Haotian Liu | Repository Link. #4 LearnOpenCV Satya Mallick maintains a repository on GitHub called LearnOpenCV. It contains a collection of C++ and Python codes related to Computer Vision, Deep Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. These codes are examples for articles shared on the LearnOpenCV.com blog. LearnOpenCV Repository Resource Format The resource format of the repository includes code for the articles and blogs. Whether you prefer hands-on coding or reading in-depth explanations, this repository has diverse resources to cater to your learning style. Repository Contents This repo contains code for Computer Vision, deep learning, and AI articles shared in OpenCV’s blogs, LearnOpenCV.com. You can choose the format that best suits your learning style and interests. Here are some popular topics from the LearnOpenCV repository: Face Detection and Recognition: Learn how to detect and recognize faces in images and videos using OpenCV and deep learning techniques. Object Tracking: Explore methods for tracking objects across video frames, such as using the Mean-Shift algorithm or correlation-based tracking. Image Stitching: Discover how to combine multiple images to create panoramic views or mosaics. Camera Calibration: Understand camera calibration techniques to correct lens distortion and obtain accurate measurements from images with OpenCV. Deep Learning Models: Use pre-trained deep learning models for tasks like image classification, object detection, and semantic segmentation. Augmented Reality (AR): Learn to overlay virtual objects onto real-world scenes using techniques such as marker-based AR. These examples provide practical insights into Computer Vision and AI, making them valuable resources for anyone interested in these fields! Key Learnings Apply OpenCV techniques confidently across varied industry contexts. Undertake hands-on projects using OpenCV that solidify your skills and theoretical understanding, preparing you for real-world Computer Vision challenges. Proficiency Level This repo caters to a wide audience: Beginner: Gain your footing in Computer Vision and AI with introductory blogs and simple projects. Intermediate: Elevate your understanding with more complex algorithms and applications. Advanced: Challenge yourself with cutting-edge research implementations and in-depth blog posts. Commits: 2,333 | Stars: 20.1k | Forks: 11.5k | Author: Satya Mallick | Repository Link. #5 Papers with Code Researchers from Meta AI are responsible for maintaining Papers with Code as a community project. No data is shared with any Meta Platforms product. Papers with Code Repository Repository Format The repository provides a wide range of Computer Vision research papers in various formats, such as:  ResNet: A powerful convolutional neural network architecture with 2052 papers with code. Vision Transformer: Leveraging self-attention mechanisms, this model has 1229 papers with code. VGG: The classic VGG architecture boasts 478 papers with code. DenseNet: Known for its dense connectivity, it has 385 papers with code. VGG-16: A variant of VGG, it appears in 352 papers with code. Repository Contents This repository contains Datasets, Research Papers with Codes, Tasks, and all the Computer Vision-related research material on almost every segment and aspect of CV like The contents are segregated in the form of classified lists as follows:  State-of-the-Art Benchmarks: The repository provides access to a whopping 4,443 benchmarks related to Computer Vision. These benchmarks serve as performance standards for various tasks and models. Diverse Tasks: With 1,364 tasks, Papers With Code covers a wide spectrum of Computer Vision challenges. Whether you’re looking for image classification, object tracking, or depth estimation, you'll find it here. Rich Dataset Collection: Explore 2,842 datasets curated for Computer Vision research. These datasets fuel advancements in ML and allow researchers to evaluate their models effectively. Massive Paper Repository: The platform hosts an impressive collection of 42,212 papers with codes. These papers contribute to cutting-edge research in Computer Vision. Key Learnings Here are some key learnings from the Computer Vision on Papers With Code: Semantic Segmentation: This task involves segmenting an image into regions corresponding to different object classes. There are 287 benchmarks and 4,977 papers with codes related to semantic segmentation. Object Detection: Object detection aims to locate and classify objects within an image. The section covers 333 benchmarks and 3,561 papers with code related to this task. Image Classification: Image classification involves assigning a label to an entire image. It features 464 benchmarks and 3,642 papers with code. Representation Learning: This area focuses on learning useful representations from data. There are 15 benchmarks and 3,542 papers with code related to representation learning. Reinforcement Learning (RL): While not specific to Computer Vision, there is 1 benchmark and 3,826 papers with code related to RL. Image Generation: This task involves creating new images. It includes 221 benchmarks and 1,824 papers with code. These insights provide a glimpse into the diverse research landscape within Computer Vision. Researchers can explore the repository to stay updated on the latest advancements and contribute to the field. Proficiency Levels A solid understanding of Computer Vision concepts and familiarity with machine learning and deep learning techniques are essential to make the best use of the Computer Vision section on Papers With Code. Here are the recommended proficiency levels: Intermediate: Proficient in Python, understanding of neural networks, can read research papers, and explore datasets. Advanced: Strong programming skills, deep knowledge, ability to contribute to research, and ability to stay updated. Benchmarks: 4,443 | Tasks: 1,364 | Datasets: 2,842 | Papers with Code: 42,212 #6  Microsoft / ComputerVision-Recipes The Microsoft GitHub organization hosts various open-source projects and samples across various domains. Among the many repositories hosted by Microsoft, the Computer Vision Recipes repository is a valuable resource for developers and enthusiasts interested in using Computer Vision technologies. Microsoft's Repositories Repository Format One key strength of Microsoft’s Computer Vision Recipes repository is its focus on simplicity and usability. The recipes are well-documented and include detailed explanations, code snippets, and sample outputs. Languages: The recipes are a range of programming languages, primarily Python (with some Jupyter Notebook examples), C#, C++, TypeScript, and JavaScript so that developers can use the language of their choice. Operating Systems: Additionally, the recipes are compatible with various operating systems, including Windows, Linux, and macOS. Repository Content Guidelines: The repository includes guidelines and recommendations for implementing Computer Vision solutions effectively.  Code Samples: You’ll find practical code snippets and examples covering a wide range of Computer Vision tasks. Documentation: Detailed explanations, tutorials, and documentation accompany the code samples. Supported Scenarios: - Image Tagging: Assigning relevant tags to images. - Face Recognition: Identifying and verifying faces in images. - OCR (Optical Character Recognition): Extracting text from images. - Video Analytics: Analyzing videos for objects, motion, and events. Highlights| Multi-Object Tracking: Added state-of-the-art support for multi-object tracking based on the FairMOT approach described in the 2020 paper “A Simple Baseline for Multi-Object Tracking." . Key Learnings The Computer Vision Recipes repository from Microsoft offers valuable insights and practical knowledge in computer vision. Here are some key learnings you can expect: Best Practices: The repository provides examples and guidelines for building computer vision systems using best practices. You’ll learn about efficient data preprocessing, model selection, and evaluation techniques. Task-Specific Implementations: This section covers a variety of computer vision tasks, such as image classification, object detection, and image similarity. By studying these implementations, you’ll better understand how to approach real-world vision problems. Deep Learning with PyTorch: The recipes leverage PyTorch, a popular deep learning library. You’ll learn how to create and train neural networks for vision tasks and explore architectures and techniques specific to computer vision. Proficiency Level The Computer Vision Recipes repository caters to a wide range of proficiency levels, from beginners to experienced practitioners. Whether you’re just starting in computer vision or looking to enhance your existing knowledge, this repository provides practical examples and insights that can benefit anyone interested in building robust computer vision systems. Commits: 906 | Stars: 9.3k | Forks: 1.2k | Author: Microsoft | Repository Link. #7 Awesome-Deep-Vision The Awesome Deep Vision repository, curated by Jiwon Kim, Heesoo Myeong, Myungsub Choi, Jung Kwon Lee, and Taeksoo Kim, is a comprehensive collection of deep learning resources designed specifically for Computer Vision.  This repository offers a well-organized collection of research papers, frameworks, tutorials, and other useful materials relating to Computer Vision and deep learning. Awesome-Deep-Vision Repository Repository Format The Awesome Deep Vision repository organizes its resources in a curated list format. The list includes various categories related to Computer Vision and deep learning, such as research papers, courses, books, videos, software, frameworks, applications, tutorials, and blogs. The repository is a valuable resource for anyone interested in advancing their knowledge in this field. Repository Content Here’s a closer look at the content and their sub-sections of the Awesome Deep Vision repository: Papers: This section includes seminal research papers related to Computer Vision. Notable topics covered include: ImageNet Classification: Papers like Alex Krizhevsky, Ilya Sutskever, and Geoffrey E. Hinton’s work on image classification using deep convolutional neural networks. Object Detection: Research on real-time object detection, including Faster R-CNN and PVANET. Low-Level Vision: Papers on edge detection, semantic segmentation, and visual attention. Other resources are Computer Vision course lists, books, video lectures, frameworks, applications, tutorials, and insightful blog posts. Key Learnings The Awesome Deep Vision repository offers several valuable learnings for those interested in Computer Vision and deep learning: Stay Updated: The repository provides a curated list of research papers, frameworks, and tutorials. By exploring these resources, you can stay informed about the latest advancements in Computer Vision. Explore Frameworks: Discover various deep learning frameworks and libraries. Understanding their features and capabilities can enhance your ability to work with Computer Vision models. Learn from Research Papers: Dive into research papers related to Computer Vision. These papers often introduce novel techniques, architectures, and approaches. Studying them can broaden your knowledge and inspire your work. Community Collaboration: The repository is a collaborative effort by multiple contributors. Engaging with the community and sharing insights can lead to valuable discussions and learning opportunities. While the repository doesn’t directly provide model implementations, it is a valuable reference point for anyone passionate about advancing their Computer Vision and deep learning skills.  Proficiency Level The proficiency levels that this repository caters to are: Intermediate: Proficiency in Python programming and awareness of deep learning frameworks. Advanced: In-depth knowledge of CV principles, mastery of frameworks, and ability to contribute to the community. Commits : 207 | Stars : 10.8k | Forks : 2.8k | Author : Jiwon Kim | Repository Link. #8 Awesome Transformer with Computer Vision (CV) The Awesome Visual Transformer repository is a curated collection of articles and resources on transformer models in Computer Vision (CV), maintained by dk-liang.  The repository is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the intersection of visual transformers and Computer Vision (CV). Awesome-visual-transformer Repository Repository Format This repository (Awesome Transformer with Computer Vision (CV)) is a collection of research papers about transformers with vision. It contains surveys, arXiv papers, papers with codes on CVPR, and papers on many other subjects related to Computer Vision. It does not contain any coding.  Repository Content This is a valuable resource for anyone interested in transformer models within the context of Computer Vision (CV). Here’s a brief overview of its content: Papers: The repository collects research papers related to visual transformers. Notable papers include: “Transformers in Vision”: A technical blog discussing vision transformers. “Multimodal learning with transformers: A survey”: An IEEE TPAMI paper. ArXiv Papers: The repository includes various arXiv papers, such as: “Understanding Gaussian Attention Bias of Vision Transformers” “TAG: Boosting Text-VQA via Text-aware Visual Question-answer Generation” Transformer for Classification: - Visual Transformer Stand-Alone Self-Attention in Vision Models: Designed for image recognition, by Ramachandran et al. in 2019. - Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale: Dosovitskiy et al. explore transformers for large-scale image recognition in 2021. Other Topics: The repository covers task-aware active learning, robustness against adversarial attacks, and person re-identification using locally aware transformers. Key Learnings Here are some key learnings from the Awesome Visual Transformer repository: Understanding Visual Transformers: The repository provides a comprehensive overview of visual transformers, including their architecture, attention mechanisms, and applications in Computer Vision. You’ll learn how transformers differ from traditional convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and their advantages. Research Papers and Surveys: Explore curated research papers and surveys on visual transformers. These cover topics like self-attention, positional encodings, and transformer-based models for image classification, object detection, and segmentation. Practical Implementations: The repository includes practical implementations of visual transformers. Studying these code examples will give you insights into how to build and fine-tune transformer-based models for specific vision tasks. Proficiency Level Aimed at Computer Vision researchers and engineers with a practical understanding of the foundational concepts of transformers. Commits: 259 | Stars: 3.2k | Forks: 390 | Author: Dingkang Liang | Repository Link. #9 Papers-with-Code: CVPR 2023 Repository The CVPR2024-Papers-with-Code repository, maintained by Amusi, is a comprehensive collection of research papers and associated open-source projects related to Computer Vision. It covers many topics, including machine learning, deep learning, image processing, and specific areas like object detection, image segmentation, and visual tracking. CVPR2024 Papers with Code Repository Repository Format The repository is an extensive collection of research papers and relevant codes organized according to different topics, including machine learning, deep learning, image processing, and specific areas like object detection, image segmentation, and visual tracking.  Repository Content CVPR 2023 Papers: The repository contains a collection of papers presented at the CVPR 2023 conference. This year (2023), the conference received a record 9,155 submissions, a 12% increase over CVPR 2022, and accepted 2,360 papers for a 25.78% acceptance rate. Open-Source Projects: Along with the papers, the repository also includes links to the corresponding open-source projects. Organized by Topics: The papers and projects in the repository are organized by various topics such as Backbone, CLIP, MAE, GAN, OCR, Diffusion Models, Vision Transformer, Vision-Language, Self-supervised Learning, Data Augmentation, Object Detection, Visual Tracking, and numerous other related topics. Past Conferences: The repository also contains links to papers and projects from past CVPR conferences. Key Learnings Here are some key takeaways from the repository: Cutting-Edge Research: The repository provides access to the latest research papers presented at CVPR 2024. Researchers can explore novel techniques, algorithms, and approaches in Computer Vision. Practical Implementations: The associated open-source code allows practitioners to experiment with and implement state-of-the-art methods alongside research papers. This practical aspect bridges the gap between theory and application. Diverse Topics: The repository covers many topics, including machine learning, deep learning, image processing, and specific areas like object detection, image segmentation, and visual tracking. This diversity enables users to delve into various aspects of Computer Vision. In short, the repository is a valuable resource for staying informed about advancements in Computer Vision and gaining theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Proficiency Level While beginners may find the content challenging, readers with a solid foundation in Computer Vision can benefit significantly from this repository's theoretical insights and practical implementations. Commits: 642 | Stars: 15.2k | Forks: 2.4k | Author: Amusi | Repository Link. #10 Face Recognition This  repository on GitHub provides a simple and powerful facial recognition API for Python. It lets you recognize and manipulate faces from Python code or the command line.  Built using dlib’s state-of-the-art face recognition, this library achieves an impressive 99.38% accuracy on the Labeled Faces in the Wild benchmark. Face Recognition Repository Repository Format  The content of the face_recognition repository on GitHub is primarily in Python. It provides a simple and powerful facial recognition API that allows you to recognize and manipulate faces from Python code or the command line. You can use this library to find faces in pictures, identify facial features, and even perform real-time face recognition with other Python libraries.  Repository Content Here’s a concise list of the content within the face_recognition repository: Python Code Files: The repository contains Python code files that implement various facial recognition functionalities. These files include functions for finding faces in pictures, manipulating facial features, and performing face identification. Example Snippets: The repository provides example code snippets demonstrating how to use the library. These snippets cover tasks such as locating faces in images and comparing face encodings. Dependencies: The library relies on the dlib library for its deep learning-based face recognition. To use this library, you need to have Python 3.3+ (or Python 2.7), macOS or Linux, and dlib with Python bindings installed. Key Learnings Some of the key learnings from the face_recognition repository are: Facial Recognition in Python: It provides functions for locating faces in images, manipulating facial features, and identifying individuals. Deep Learning with dlib: You can benefit from the state-of-the-art face recognition model within dlib. Real-World Applications: By exploring the code and examples, you can understand how facial recognition can be applied in real-world scenarios. Applications include security, user authentication, and personalized experiences. Practical Usage: The repository offers practical code snippets that you can integrate into your projects. It’s a valuable resource for anyone interested in using facial data in Python. Proficiency Level Caters to users with a moderate-to-advanced proficiency level in Python. It provides practical tools and examples for facial recognition, making it suitable for those who are comfortable with Python programming and want to explore face-related tasks. Commits: 238 | Stars: 51.3k | Forks: 13.2k | Author: Adam Geitgey | Repository Link. Key Takeaways Open-source Computer Vision tools and resources greatly benefit researchers and developers in the CV field. The contributions from these repositories advance Computer Vision knowledge and capabilities.  Here are the highlights of this article: Benefits of Code, Research Papers, and Applications: Code, research papers, and applications are important sources of knowledge and understanding. Code provides instructions for computers and devices, research papers offer insights and analysis, and applications are practical tools that users interact with. Wide Range of Topics: Computer Vision encompasses various tasks related to understanding and interpreting visual information, including image classification, object detection, facial recognition, and semantic segmentation. It finds applications in image search, self-driving cars, medical diagnosis, and other fields.

A survey of Image segmentation GitHub Repositories shows how the field is rapidly advancing as computing power increases and diverse benchmark datasets emerge to evaluate model performance across various industrial domains.  Additionally, with the advent of Transformer-based architecture and few-shot learning methods, the artificial intelligence (AI) community uses Vision Transformers (ViT) to enhance segmentation accuracy. The techniques involve state-of-the-art (SOTA) algorithms that only need a few labeled data samples for model training. With around 100 million developers contributing to GitHub globally, the platform is popular for exploring some of the most modern segmentation models currently available.  This article explores the exciting world of segmentation by delving into the top 15 GitHub repositories, which showcase different approaches to segmenting complex images.  But first, let’s understand a few things about image segmentation. What is Image Segmentation? Image segmentation is a computer vision (CV) task that involves classifying each pixel in an image. The technique works by clustering similar pixels and assigning them a relevant label. The method can be categorized into:  Semantic segmentation—categorizes unique objects based on pixel similarity. Instance segmentation— distinguishes different instances of the same object category. For example, instance segmentation will recognize multiple individuals in an image as separate entities, labeling each person as “person 1”, “person 2”, “person 3”, etc. Semantic Segmentation (Left) and Instance Segmentation (Right) The primary applications of image segmentation include autonomous driving and medical imaging. In autonomous driving, segmentation allows the model to classify objects on the road. In medical imaging, segmentation enables healthcare professionals to detect anomalies in X-rays, MRIs, and CT scans. Want to know about best practices for image segmentation? Read our Guide to Image Segmentation in Computer Vision: Best Practices.   Factors to Validate Github Repository’s Health Before we list the top repositories for image segmentation, it is essential to understand how to determine a GitHub repository's health. The list below highlights a few factors you should consider to assess a repository’s reliability and sustainability: Level of Activity: Assess the frequency of updates by checking the number of commits, issues resolved, and pull requests. Contribution: Check the number of developers contributing to the repository. A large number of contributors signifies diverse community support. Documentation: Determine documentation quality by checking the availability of detailed readme files, support documents, tutorials, and links to relevant external research papers. New Releases: Examine the frequency of new releases. A higher frequency indicates continuous development. Responsiveness: Review how often the repository authors respond to issues raised by users. High responsiveness implies that the authors actively monitor the repository to identify and fix problems. Stars Received: Stars on GitHub indicate a repository's popularity and credibility within the developer community. Active contributors often attract more stars, showcasing their value and impact.  Top GitHub Repositories for Image Segmentation Due to image segmentation’s ability to perform advanced detection tasks, the AI community offers multiple open-source GitHub repositories comprising the latest algorithms, research papers, and implementation details. The following sections will overview the fifteen most interesting public repositories, describing their resource format and content, topics covered, key learnings, and difficulty level. #1. Awesome Referring Image Segmentation Referring image segmentation involves segmenting objects based on a natural language query. For example, the user can provide a phrase such as “a brown bag” to segment the relevant object within an image containing multiple objects. Referring image segmentation Resource Format The repository is a collection of benchmark datasets, research papers, and their respective code implementations. Repository Contents The repo comprises ten datasets, including ReferIt, Google-Ref, UNC, and UNC+, and 72 SOTA models for different referring image segmentation tasks. Topics Covered Traditional Referring Image Segmentation: In the repo, you will find frameworks or traditional referring image segmentation, such as LISA, for segmentation through large language models (LLMs). Interactive Referring Image Segmentation: Includes the interactive PhraseClick referring image segmentation model. Referring Video Object Segmentation: Consists of 18 models to segment objects within videos. Referring 3D Instance Segmentation: There are two models for referring 3D instance segmentation tasks for segmenting point-cloud data. Key Learnings Different Types of Referring Image Segmentation: Exploring this repo will allow you to understand how referring interactive, 3D instance, and video segmentation differ from traditional referring image segmentation tasks. Code Implementations: The code demonstrations will help you apply different frameworks to real-world scenarios. Proficiency Level The repo is for expert-level users with a robust understanding of image segmentation concepts. Commits: 71 | Stars: 501 | Forks: 54 | Author: Haoran MO | Repository Link.   #2. Transformer-based Visual Segmentation Transformer-based visual segmentation uses the transformer architecture with the self-attention mechanism to segment objects. Transformer-based Visual Segmentation Resource Format The repo contains research papers and code implementations. Resource Contents It has several segmentation frameworks based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs), multi-head and cross-attention architectures, and query-based models. Topics Covered Detection Transformer (DETR): The repository includes models built on the DETR architecture that Meta introduced. Attention Mechanism: Multiple models use the attention mechanism for segmenting objects. Pre-trained Foundation Model Tuning: Covers techniques for tuning pre-trained models. Key Learnings Applications of Transformers in Segmentation: The repo will allow you to explore the latest research on using transformers to segment images in multiple ways. Self-supervised Learning: You will learn how to apply self-supervised learning methods to transformer-based visual segmentation. Proficiency Level This is an expert-level repository requiring an understanding of the transformer architecture. Commits: 13 | Stars: 549 | Forks: 40 | Author: Xiangtai Li | Repository Link. #3. Segment Anything The Segment Anything Model (SAM) is a robust segmentation framework by Meta AI that generates object masks through user prompts. Segment Anything Model Resource Format The repo contains the research paper and an implementation guide. Resource Contents It consists of Jupyter notebooks and scripts with sample code for implementing SAM and has three model checkpoints, each with a different backbone size. It also provides Meta’s own SA-1B dataset for training object segmentation models. Topics Covered How SAM Works: The paper explains how Meta developed the SAM framework. Getting Started Tutorial: The Getting Started guide helps you generate object masks using SAM. Key Learnings How to Use SAM: The repo teaches you how to create segmentation masks with different model checkpoints. Proficiency Level This is a beginner-level repo that teaches you about SAM from scratch. Commits: 46 | Stars: 42.8k | Forks: 5k | Author: Hanzi Mao | Repository Link.   #4. Awesome Segment Anything The Awesome Segment Anything repository is a comprehensive survey of models using SAM as the foundation to segment anything. SAM mapping image features and prompt embeddings set for a segmentation mask Resource Format The repo is a list of papers and code. Resource Content It consists of SAM’s applications, historical development, and research trends. Topics Covered SAM-based Models: The repo explores the research on SAM-based frameworks. Open-source Projects: It also covers open-source models on platforms like HuggingFace and Colab. Key Learnings SAM Applications: Studying the repo will help you learn about use cases where SAM is relevant. Contemporary Segmentation Methods: It introduces the latest segmentation methods based on SAM. Proficiency Level This is an expert-level repo containing advanced research papers on SAM. Commits: 273 | Stars: 513 | Forks: 39 | Author: Chunhui Zhang | Repository Link.   #5. Image Segmentation Keras The repository is a Keras implementation of multiple deep learning image segmentation models. SAM mapping image features and prompt embeddings set for a segmentation mask Resource Format Code implementations of segmentation models. Resource Content The repo consists of implementations for Segnet, FCN, U-Net, Resnet, PSPNet, and VGG-based segmentation models. Topics Covered Colab Examples: The repo demonstrates implementations through a Python interface. Installation: There is an installation guide to run the relevant modules. Key Learnings How to Use Keras: The repo will help you learn how to implement segmentation models in Keras. Fine-tuning and Knowledge Distillation: The repo contains sections that explain how to fine-tune pre-trained models and use knowledge distillation to develop simpler models. Proficiency Level The repo is an intermediate-level resource for those familiar with Python. Commits: 256 | Stars: 2.8k | Forks: 1.2k | Author: Divam Gupta | Repository Link. #6. Image Segmentation The repository is a PyTorch implementation of multiple segmentation models. R2U-Net Resource Format It consists of code and research papers. Resource Content The models covered include U-Net, R2U-Net, Attention U-Net, and Attention R2U-Net. Topics Covered Architectures: The repo explains the models’ architectures and how they work. Evaluation Strategies: It tests the performance of all models using various evaluation metrics. Key Learnings PyTorch: The repo will help you learn about the PyTorch library. U-Net: It will familiarize you with the U-Net model, a popular framework for medical image segmentation. Proficiency Level This is an intermediate-level repo for those familiar with deep neural networks and evaluation methods in machine learning. Commits: 13 | Stars: 2.4k | Forks: 584 | Author: LeeJunHyun | Repository Link. #7. Portrait Segmentation The repository contains implementations of portrait segmentation models for mobile devices. Portrait Segmentation Resource Format The repo contains code and a detailed tutorial. Resource Content It consists of checkpoints, datasets, dependencies, and demo files. Topics Covered Model Architecture: The repo explains the architecture for Mobile-Unet, Deeplab V3+, Prisma-net, Portrait-net, Slim-net, and SINet. Evaluation: It reports the performance results of all the models. Key Learnings Portrait Segmentation Techniques: The repo will teach you about portrait segmentation frameworks. Model Development Workflow: It gives tips and tricks for training and validating models. Proficiency Level This is an expert-level repo. It requires knowledge of Tensorflow, Keras, and OpenCV. Commits: 405 | Stars: 624 | Forks: 135 | Author: Anilsathyan | Repository Link. #8. BCDU-Net The repository implements the Bi-Directional Convolutional LSTM with U-net (BCDU-Net) for medical segmentation tasks, including lung, skin lesions, and retinal blood vessel segmentation. BCDU-Net Architecture Resource Format The repo contains code and an overview of the model. Resource Content It contains links to the research paper, updates, and a list of medical datasets for training. It also provides pre-trained weights for lung, skin lesion, and blood vessel segmentation models. Topics Covered BCDU-Net Architecture: The repo explains the model architecture in detail. Performance Results: It reports the model's performance statistics against other SOTA frameworks. Key Learnings Medical Image Analysis: Exploring the repo will familiarize you with medical image formats and how to detect anomalies using deep learning models. BCDU-Net Development Principles: It explains how the BCDU-net model works based on the U-net architecture. You will also learn about the Bi-directional LSTM component fused with convolutional layers. Proficiency Level This is an intermediate-level repo. It requires knowledge of LSTMs and CNNs. Commits: 166 | Stars: 656 | Forks: 259 | Author: Reza Azad | Repository Link. #9.MedSegDiff The repository demonstrates the use of diffusion techniques for medical image segmentation. Diffusion Technique Resource Format It contains code implementations and a research paper. Resource Contents It overviews the model architecture and contains the brain tumor segmentation dataset. Topics Covered Model Structure: The repo explains the application of the diffusion method to segmentation problems. Examples: It contains examples for training the model on tumor and melanoma datasets. Key Learnings The Diffusion Mechanism: You will learn how the diffusion technique works. Hyperparameter Tuning: The repo demonstrates a few hyper-parameters to fine-tune the model. Proficiency Level This is an intermediate-level repo requiring knowledge of diffusion methods. Commits: 116 | Stars: 868 | Forks: 130 | Author: Junde Wu | Repository Link. #10. U-Net The repository is a Keras-based implementation of the U-Net architecture. U-Net Architecture Resource Format It contains the original training dataset, code, and a brief tutorial. Resource Contents The repo provides the link to the U-Net paper and contains a section that lists the dependencies and results. Topics Covered U-Net Architecture: The research paper in the repo explains how the U-Net model works. Keras: The topic page has a section that gives an overview of the Keras library. Key Learnings Data Augmentation: The primary feature of the U-net model is its use of data augmentation techniques. The repo will help you learn how the framework augments medical data for enhanced training. Proficiency Level This is a beginner-level repo requiring basic knowledge of Python. Commits: 17 | Stars: 4.4k | Forks: 2k | Author: Zhixuhao | Repository Link. #11. SOTA-MedSeg The repository is a detailed record of medical image segmentation challenges and winning models. Medical Imaging Segmentation Methods Resource Format The repo comprises research papers, code, and segmentation challenges based on different anatomical structures. Resource Contents It mentions the winning models for each year from 2018 to 2023 and provides their performance results on multiple segmentation tasks. Topics Covered Medical Image Segmentation: The repo explores models for segmenting brain, head, kidney, and neck tumors. Past Challenges: It lists older medical segmentation challenges. Key Learnings Latest Trends in Medical Image Processing: The repo will help you learn about the latest AI models for segmenting anomalies in multiple anatomical regions. Proficiency Level This is an expert-level repo requiring in-depth medical knowledge. Commits: 70 | Stars: 1.3k | Forks: 185 | Author: JunMa | Repository Link.   #12. UniverSeg The repository introduces the Universal Medical Image Segmentation (UniverSeg) model that requires no fine-tuning for novel segmentation tasks (e.g. new biomedical domain, new image type, new region of interest, etc). UnverSeg Method Resource Format It contains the research paper and code for implementing the model. Resource Contents The research paper provides details of the model architecture and Python code with an example dataset. Topics Covered UniverSeg Development: The repo illustrates the inner workings of the UniverSeg model. Implementation Guidelines: A ‘Getting Started’ section will guide you through the implementation process. Key Learnings Few-shot Learning: The model employs few-shot learning methods for quick adaptation to new tasks. Proficiency Level This is a beginner-level repo requiring basic knowledge of few-shot learning. Commits: 31 | Stars: 441 | Forks: 41 | Author: Jose Javier | Repository Link.   #13. Medical SAM Adapter The repository introduces the Medical SAM Adapter (Med-SA), which fine-tunes the SAM architecture for medical-specific domains. Med-SA Architecture Resource Format The repo contains a research paper, example datasets, and code for implementing Med-SA. Resource Contents The paper explains the architecture in detail, and the datasets relate to melanoma, abdominal, and optic-disc segmentation. Topics Covered Model Architecture: The research paper in the repo covers a detailed explanation of how the model works. News: It shares a list of updates related to the model. Key Learnings Vision Transformers (ViT): The model uses the ViT framework for image adaptation. Interactive Segmentation: You will learn how the model incorporates click prompts for model training. Proficiency Level The repo is an expert-level resource requiring an understanding of transformers. Commits: 95 | Stars: 759 | Forks: 58 | Author: Junde Wu (via Kids with Tokens) | Repository Link. #14. TotalSegmentator The repository introduces TotalSegmentator, a domain-specific medical segmentation model for segmenting CT images. Subtasks with Classes Resource Format The repo provides a short installation guide, code files, and links to the research paper. Resource Contents The topic page lists suitable use cases, advanced settings, training validation details, a Python API, and a table with all the class names. Topics Covered Total Segmentation Development: The paper discusses how the model works. Usage: It explains the sub-tasks the model can perform. Key Learnings Implementation Using Custom Datasets: The repo teaches you how to apply the model to unique medical datasets. nnU-Net: The model uses nnU-Net, a semantic segmentation model that automatically adjusts parameters based on input data. Proficiency Level The repo is an intermediate-level resource requiring an understanding of the U-Net architecture. Commits: 560 | Stars: 1.1k | Forks: 171 | Author: Jakob Wasserthal | Repository Link.   #15. Medical Zoo Pytorch The repository implements a Pytorch-based library for 3D multi-modal medical image segmentation. Implementing Image Segmentation in PyTorch Resource Format It contains the implementation code and research papers for the models featured in the library. Resource Contents The repo lists the implemented architectures and has a Quick Start guide with a demo in Colab. Topics Covered 3D Segmentation Models: The library contains multiple models, including U-Net3D, V-net, U-Net, and MED3D. Image Data-loaders: It consists of data-loaders for fetching standard medical datasets. Key Learnings Brain Segmentation Performance: The research paper compares the performance of implemented architectures on brain sub-region segmentation. This will help you identify the best model for brain segmentation. COVID-19 Segmentation: The library has a custom model for detecting COVID-19 cases. The implementation will help you classify COVID-19 patients through radiography chest images. Proficiency Level This is an expert-level repo requiring knowledge of several 3D segmentation models. Commits: 122 | Stars: 1.6k | Forks: 288 | Author: Adaloglou Nikolas | Repository Link. GitHub Repositories for Image Segmentation: Key Takeaways While object detection and image classification models dominate the CV space, the recent rise in segmentation frameworks signals a new era for AI in various applications.  Below are a few points to remember regarding image segmentation: Medical Segmentation is the most significant use case. Most segmentation models discussed above aim to segment complex medical images to detect anomalies. Few-shot Learning: Few-shot learning methods make it easier for experts to develop models for segmenting novel images. Transformer-based Architectures: The transformer architecture is becoming a popular framework for segmentation tasks due to its simplicity and higher processing speeds than traditional methods.

Object tracking has become a fundamental part of the computer vision ecosystem. It powers various modern artificial intelligence applications and is behind several revolutionary technologies, such as self-driving cars, surveillance, and action recognition systems. Tracking algorithms use a combination of object detection and object tracking to detect and localize entities within a video frame. These algorithms range from basic machine learning to complex deep learning networks. Each of these has different implementations and use cases. This article will discuss the top 10 most popular video object-tracking algorithms. It will go over video object-tracking algorithms' back-end implementations, advantages, and disadvantages. We will also explore popular computer vision applications for object tracking. What is Video Object Tracking? Video object tracking refers to detecting an object within a video frame and tracking its position throughout the video. The concept of object tracking stems from object detection, a popular computer vision (CV) technique used for identifying and localizing different objects in images. While object detection works on still images (single frames), video object tracking applies this concept to every frame in the video. It analyzes each frame to identify the object in question and draw a bounding box around it. The object is effectively tracked throughout the video by performing this operation on all frames. However, complex machine learning and deep learning algorithms apply additional techniques such as region proposal and trajectory prediction for real-time object inference. Object tracking algorithms have revolutionized several industries. It has enabled businesses to implement analytics and automation in various domains and led to applications like: Autonomous Vehicles: Tracking surrounding elements like pedestrians, roads, curbs. Automated Surveillance: Tracking people or illegal objects like guns and knives. Sports Analytics: Tracking the ball or players to create match strategies. Augmented Reality Applications: Tracking all objects in the visual field to superimpose the virtual elements. Customer Analysis in Retail: Tracking retail store customers to understand movement patterns and optimize shelf placement. Over the years, object tracking algorithms have undergone various improvements in-terms of accuracy and performance. Let’s discuss these in detail. Single-stage Object Detectors Vs. Two-stage Object Detectors Object detection is a crucial part of tracking algorithms. Hence, it is vital to understand them in detail. There are two main categories of object detectors: Single-stage and two-stage. Both these methodologies have proven to provide exceptional results. However, each offers different benefits, with the former having a lower inference time and the latter having better accuracy. Single-stage detectors perform faster since they rely on a single network to produce annotations. These models skip intermediate feature extraction steps, such as region proposal. They use the raw input image to identify objects and generate bounding box coordinates. One example of a single-stage detector is You only look once (YOLO). YOLO can generate annotations with a single pass of the image. Single Stage Vs. Two-Stage Detection Two-stage detectors, such as Fast R-CNN, comprise two networks. The first is a region proposal network (RPN) that analyzes the image and extracts potential regions containing the desired objects. The second network is a CNN-based feature extractor that analyzes the proposed regions. The latter identifies the objects present and outputs their bounding box coordinates.  Two-stage object detectors are computationally expensive compared to their single-stage counterparts. However, they produce more accurate results. Object Tracking Approaches Object tracking algorithms work on two granularity levels. These include: Single Object Tracking (SOT) SOT is used to track the location of a single object throughout the video feed. These detection-free algorithms depend on the user to provide a bounding box around the target object on the first frame. The algorithm learns to track the position and movement of the object present within the box. It localizes the object's shape, posture, and trajectory in every subsequent frame. Single object tracking is useful when the focus must be kept on a particular entity. Some examples include tracking suspicious activity in surveillance footage or ball-tracking in sports analytics. Popular SOT algorithms include Particle Filters and Siamese Networks. However, one downside of traditional SOT algorithms is that they are unsuitable for context-aware applications where tracking multiple objects is necessary. Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) MOT works on the same concept as SOT. However, multi-object tracking identifies and tracks multiple objects throughout a video instead of a single object. MOT algorithms use extensive training datasets to understand moving objects. Once trained, they can identify and track multiple objects within each frame. Modern deep-learning MOT algorithms, like DeepSORT, can even detect new objects mid-video and create new tracks for them while keeping existing tracks intact. Multiple-object tracking is useful when various objects must be analyzed simultaneously. For example, in virtual reality (VR) applications, the algorithm must keep track of all objects in the frame to superimpose the virtual elements. However, these algorithms are computationally expensive and require lengthy training time. Phases of Object Tracking Process Visual object tracking is a challenging process comprising several phases. Target Initialization: The first step is to define all the objects of interest using labels and bounding boxes. The annotations, which include the names and locations of all the objects to be tracked, are specified in the first video frame. The algorithm then learns to identify these objects in all the subsequent images or video sequences. Appearance Modelling: An object may undergo visual transformation throughout the video due to varying lighting conditions, motion blur, image noise, or physical augmentations. This phase of the object-tracking process aims to capture these various transformations to improve the model’s robustness. It includes constructing object descriptions and mathematical models to identify objects with different appearances. Motion Estimation: Once the object features are defined, motion estimation predicts the object’s position based on the previous frame data. This is achieved by leveraging linear regression techniques or Particle Filters. Target Positioning: Motion estimation provides an estimate of the object's position. The next step is to pinpoint the exact coordinates within the predicted region. This is accomplished using a greedy search, i.e., checking every possibility or a maximum posterior estimation that looks at the most likely place using visual clues. Criteria for Selecting a Video Object Tracking Algorithm The two primary criteria to evaluate object tracking methods are accuracy and inference time. These help determine the best algorithm for particular use cases. Let’s discuss these criteria in detail. Accuracy Tracking algorithms output two main predictions: object identity (label) and location (bounding box coordinates). The accuracy of these models is determined by evaluating both these predictions and analyzing how well it was able to identify and localize the object. Metrics like Accuracy, Precision, Recall, and F1-score help evaluate the model's ability to classify the found object. While accuracy provides a generic picture, precision, and recall judge the model based on occurrences of false positives and negatives. Metrics like intersection-over-union (IoU) are used for localization accuracy. IoU calculates how much the predicted bounding box coincides with its ground truth value. A higher value means higher intersection and, hence, higher accuracy. Intersection Over Union (IoU) Inference Time The second judgment criterion is the speed of inference. Inference time determines how quickly the algorithm processes a video frame and predicts the object label and location. It is often measured in frames-per-second (FPS). This refers to the amount of frames the algorithm can process and output every second. A higher FPS value indicates faster inference. Challenges in Object Tracking Object tracking techniques carry various benefits for different industries. However, implementing a robust tracking algorithm is quite challenging. Some key challenges include: Object Variety: The real world comes with countless objects. Training a generic tracking algorithm would require an extensive dataset containing millions of objects. For this reason, object tracking models are generally domain-specific, with even the vastest models trained on only a few thousand objects. Varying Conditions: Besides the object variety, the training data must also cover objects in different conditions. A single object must be captured in different lighting conditions, seasons, times of day, and from different camera angles. Varying Image Quality: Images from different lenses produce varying information in terms of color production, saturation, etc. A robust model must incorporate these variations to cover all real-world scenarios. Computation Costs: Handling large image or video datasets requires considerable expertise and computational power. Developers need access to top-notch GPUs and data-handling tools, which can be expensive. Training deep-learning-based tracking algorithms can also increase operational costs if you use paid platforms that charge based on data units processed.  Scalability: Training general-purpose object tracking models requires extensive datasets. The growing data volumes introduce scalability challenges as developers require platforms that can handle increasingly large volumes of data and can increase computation power to train larger complex models. Top Algorithms for Video Object Tracking Here is a list of popular object tracking algorithms, ranging from simple mathematical models to complex deep learning architectures. Kalman Filter Kalman filters estimate an object’s position and predict its motion in subsequent frames. They maintain an internal representation of the object's state, including its position, velocity, and sometimes acceleration. The filters use information from the object’s previous state and a mathematical model analyzing the object’s motion to predict a future state. The model accounts for any uncertainty in the object's motion (noise). It incorporates all the discussed factors and estimates the object’s current state to create a future representation. Advantages It is a mathematical model that does not require any training. It is computationally efficient. Disadvantage Subpar performance and capabilities compared to modern deep learning algorithms. The model works on various assumptions, such as constant object acceleration. The algorithm does not perform well in random motion scenarios. KCF (Kernelized Correlation Filters) KCF is a mathematical model that understands object features and learns to distinguish them from their background. It starts with the user providing a bounding box around the object in the first frame. Once feature understanding is complete, it uses correlation filters based on the kernel trick to construct a high-dimensional relationship between the features and the true object. It uses the correlation features in subsequent frames to scan around the object's last known location. The area with the highest correlation is predicted to contain the object. Advantages Fast Computation. Low Memory Requirement. Competitive Results in general cases. Disadvantages Traditional KCF faces challenges in conditions such as varying object scales or objects touching frame boundaries. DeepSORT The Deep Simple Online Realtime Tracking (DeepSORT) algorithm extends the original SORT algorithm. The original SORT algorithm used Kalman filters to predict object motion and the Hungarian algorithm for frame-by-frame data association. However, this algorithm struggles with occlusions and varying camera angles and can lose object tracking in such complex scenarios. DeepSORT Architecture DeepSORT uses an additional convolutional neural network (CNN) as a feature extractor. These are called appearance features as they learn to determine the object identity (appearance) in different scenarios and allow the algorithm to distinguish between moving objects. DeepSORT combines the information from Filtering and CNN to create a deep association metric for accurate detection. Advantages DeepSort’s simple yet efficient implementation provides real-time performance. The model is modular. It can support any detection network of the user's choice, such as YOLO or SSD. It maintains its detection during occluded environments and can distinguish between different objects in complex scenarios. Disadvantages Offline training of a separate detection network can be challenging and requires an extensive dataset for high accuracy. FairMOT The fair multi-object tracking (FairMOT) algorithm uses a pre-trained model like faster R-CNN for detecting objects in the video sequence. It then uses a neural network to extract features from the detected object. FairMOT Architecture These features are used to track the object across other frames. The branches share the same underlying architecture and receive equal weightage during training. The FairMOT algorithm treats all classes fairly and provides a balanced performance between the two tasks: detection and tracking. Advantages Provides balanced performance between tracking and detection. Improved tracking accuracy due to the re-identification branch (feature extraction branch) Disadvantage Computationally expensive due to the two neural network branches being trained. MDNet The multi-domain network (MDNet) is popular for learning across different domains. It consists of two modules. The first is a CNN architecture shared amongst all the video sequences, i.e., it is domain-independent and learns from the entire dataset. This consists of CNN layers and a few flattened, fully connected layers. MDNet Architecture The second part comprises parallel fully connected (FC) layers, each processing domain-specific information. If the data captures information from 5 domains, the second portion will have 5 FC layers. Each of these layers is independently updated during back-propagation depending on the domain of the target image. Advantages Excellent performance across different domains. The domain-specific branches can be fine-tuned on the fly if significant domain shifts are detected. Disadvantages If data is imbalanced, the model will display uneven performance across the different domains. YOLOv8 (You Only Look Once) YOLOv8 is a single stage-detector that ranks among the most popular object tracking algorithms. The YOLO family of models is based on a CNN architecture that learns to predict object labels and positions with a single pass of the image. Yolov8 Tasks Catalog The model v8 follows a similar architecture to its predecessor and consists of various CNN and fully connected layers. It is an anchor-free algorithm, which directly predicts the object’s center rather than an offset from a predefined anchor. Moreover, the algorithm can be used for classification, segmentation, pose estimation, object detection, and tracking. YOLOv8 extends its detection capabilities by providing a range of trackers. Two popular options amongst these are Bot-SORT and ByteTrack. All the trackers are customizable, and users can fine-tune parameters like confidence threshold and tracking area. Advantages The model covers various use cases, including tracking and segmentation. High accuracy and performance. Easy Python Interface. Disadvantages Trouble detecting small objects. YOLOv8 provides various model sizes, each trading performance for accuracy. Here’s all you need to know about the YOLO family of model. Read more about YOLO models for Object Detection Explained [YOLOv8 Updated] Siamese Neural Networks (SNNs) Siamese-based tracking algorithms consist of two parallel branches of neural networks. One is a template branch, which contains the template image (including the object bounding box information) and the next frame where the object is to be found. This branch consists of CNNs and pooling layers and extracts features from both images, such as edges, texture, and shape. A fully convolutional siamese network for object tracking The other is the similarity branch that takes the features from the template and search image. It calculates the similarity between the two images using algorithms like contrastive loss. The output of this network is the likelihood of the object being present at different positions in the image. The Siamese network has had various advancements over the years. The modern architectures include attention mechanisms and RPNs for improved performance. Advantages Multiple advancements, including SiamFC, SiamRPN, etc. Disadvantages Training two parallel networks leads to long training times. GOTURN (Generic Object Tracking Using Regression Networks) Generic Object Tracking Using Regression Networks (GOTURN) is a deep learning based offline learning algorithm. The framework accepts two images, a previous frame and a current frame. The previous frame contains the object at its center, and the image is cropped to 2 times the bounding box size. The current frame is cropped in the same location, but the object is off-center as it has supposedly moved from its position. GOTURN High-level Architecture The internal structure of the model consists of convolutional layers taken from the CaffeNet architecture. Each of the two frames is passed through these layers, and the output is concatenated and processed through a series of fully connected layers. The objective of the network is to learn features from the previous frame and predict the bounding box in the current. Advantages Excellent performance, even on CPU. Disadvantages Troubled in scenarios where only some part of the object is visible. Object tracking is highly affected by imbalanced training data. Want to know more about creating a fair dataset? Read more about Balanced and Imbalanced Datasets in Machine Learning [Full Introduction] TLD (Tracking, Learning, and Detection) TLD is a framework designed for long-term tracking of an unknown object in a video sequence. The three components serve the following purpose: Tracker: Predicts the object location in the next frame using information in the current frame. This module uses techniques like mean-shift or correlation filtering. Detector: Scans the input frame-by-frame for potential objects using previously learned object appearances. Learning: Observes the tracker's and the detector's performance and identifies their errors. It further generates training samples to teach the detector to avoid mistakes in the future. Tracking-Learning-Detection Advantages Real-time performance. Disadvantages Sensitive to illumination changes. Can lose track of the object if it is completely occluded in any frame. Can fail if the object appearance changes mid-video. Median Flow Tracker The Median Flow Tracker predicts object movement in videos by analyzing feature points across frames. It estimates optical flow, filters out unreliable measurements, and uses the remaining data to update the object's bounding box. Tracking using Median Flow Internally, it tracks motion in both forward and backward directions and compares the two trajectories. Advantages Works well for predictable motion. Disadvantage Fails in scenarios of abrupt and random motion. Applications of Video Object Tracking Video Object Tracking has important use-cases in various industries. These use-cases automate laborious tasks and provide critical analytics. Let's discuss some key applications. Autonomous Vehicles Market leaders like Tesla, Waymo, and Baidu are constantly enhancing their AI infrastructure with state-of-the-art algorithms and hardware for improved tracking. Modern autonomous vehicles use different cameras and robust neural processing engines to track the objects surrounding them. Video object tracking plays a vital role in mapping the car's surroundings. This feature map helps the vehicle distinguish between elements such as trees, roads, pedestrians, etc. Autonomous Harvesting Robots Object tracking algorithms also benefit the agriculture industry by allowing autonomous detection and harvesting of ready crops. Agri-based companies like Four Growers use detection and tracking algorithms to identify harvestable tomatoes and provide yield forecasting. They use the Encord annotation tool and a team of professional annotators to label millions of objects simultaneously. Using AI-assisted tools has allowed them to cut the data processing time by half. Sports Analytics Sports analysts use computer vision algorithms to track player and ball movement to build strategies. Video tracking algorithms allow the analysts to understand player weaknesses and generate AI-based analytics. The tracking algorithms can also be used to fix player postures to improve performance and mitigate injury risks. Traffic Congestion & Emission Monitoring System Computer vision is used to track traffic activity on roads and airports. The data is also used to manage traffic density and ensure smooth flow. Companies like Automotus use object tracking models to monitor curb activity and reduce carbon emissions. Their solution automatically captures the time a car spends on the curb, detects any traffic violations, and analyzes driver behavior. Vascular Ultrasound Analysis Object detection has various use cases in the healthcare domain. One of the more prominent applications is Ultrasound analysis for diagnosing and managing vascular diseases like Popliteal Artery Aneurysms (PAAs). CV algorithms help medical practitioners in detecting anomalous entities in medical imaging. The automated detection allows for further AI analysis, such as classification, and allows the detection of minute irregularities that might otherwise be ignored. Professional Video Editing Professional tools like Adobe Premiere Pro use object tracking to aid professional content creators. It allows creators to apply advanced special effects on various elements and save time creating professional edits. Customer Analysis in Retail Stores Tracking algorithms are applied in retail stores via surveillance cameras. They are used to detect and track customer movement throughout the store premises. The tracking data helps the store owner understand hot spots where the customers spend the most time. It also gives insights into customer movement patterns that help optimize product placement on shelves. Want to know the latest computer vision use cases? Learn more about the ten most exciting applications of computer vision in 2024 Video Object Tracking: Key Takeaways The computer vision domain has come a long way, and tasks like classification, segmentation, and object tracking have seen significant improvements. ML researchers have developed various algorithms for video object tracking, each of which holds certain benefits over the other. In this article, we discussed some of the most popular architectures. Here are a few takeaways: Object Tracking vs. Object Detection: Video object tracking is an extension of object detection and applies the same principles to video sequences. Multiple Categories of Object Tracking: Object tracking comprises various sub-categories, such as single object tracking, multiple object tracking, single-stage detection, and two-stage detection. Object Tracking Metrics: Object tracking algorithms are primarily judged on their inference time (frames-per-second) and tracking accuracy. Popular Frameworks: Popular tracking frameworks include YOLOv8, DeepSORT, GOTURN, and MDNet. Applications: Object tracking is used across various domains, including healthcare, autonomous vehicles, customer analysis, and sports analytics.

With image and video data fueling advancements across various industries, the video and image annotation tool market is witnessing rapid expansion, projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% between 2023 and 2032. This growth is particularly pronounced in autonomous vehicles, healthcare, and retail sectors, where precise and accurate data annotation is crucial. The increased demand for these tools results from the need to develop robust quality assurance processes, integrate automation for efficiency, collaborate features for team-based annotation, and streamline labeling workflows to produce high-quality training data. However, the extensive choice of annotation tools makes choosing a suitable platform that suits your requirements challenging. There are a plethora of available options, each with varying features, scalability, and pricing models. This article will guide you through this tooling landscape. It highlights five critical questions you must ask before investing in a video annotation tool to ensure it aligns with your project requirements and goals. Key Factors that Hinder Efficient Annotation Project Management A robust video annotation tool helps improve annotation workflows, but selecting an appropriate solution requires you to: Consider the tool’s ability to render videos natively Track objects using advanced algorithms Perform frame-by-frame analysis Doing all those while determining its scalability, quality, integrability, and cost to guide your choice. Below are a few factors that can be potential bottlenecks to your CV project. Native Video Rendering Annotating long-form videos can be challenging if the annotation tool lacks features for rendering videos natively. The operative costs can be prohibitive if you use external tools to render multiple videos, limiting your budget for the annotation project. Object Tracking and Frame-by-Frame Analysis Another obstacle to video annotation is sub-optimal object tracking algorithms that cannot address occlusion, camera shift, and image blur. Traditional tracking algorithms use a detection framework to identify objects within separate video frames. However, detecting and tracking objects frame-by-frame can cause annotation inconsistency and increase data transfer volume. If you are using a cloud platform that charges based on data usage, this will result in inaccurate labels, processing delays, and high storage costs. Scalability Handling large and complex video data is essential for providing a high-quality user experience. However, maintaining quality requires error-free training data with accurate labels to build robust computer vision models that can efficiently process video feeds. Finding a tool that you can quickly scale to rising demands is difficult due to the constantly evolving data landscape. Tools with limited scalability can soon become a bottleneck as you start labeling extensive datasets for training large-scale CV applications. For instance, the pipelines can break as you feed more data. This can result in missed deadlines, deployment delays, and budgetary runs as you hire more annotators to compensate for the tool’s shortcomings. Quality of Annotation Annotation quality directly affects the performance of supervised learning models, which rely heavily on accurately labeled data for training. Consider developing a machine learning model for a surveillance system to detect abnormal behavior and alert relevant authorities to prevent accidents. If the model’s training set included video feeds with erroneous labels, it could not efficiently recognize security threats. This would result in false alarms and missed targets, which would lead to adverse security incidents. Deploying such models in crowded areas can be more detrimental, as the system will not flag suspicious actions in time. Mitigating these problems requires the annotation tool to have quality assurance and collaboration features, which will help human annotators verify labeling accuracy and fix errors proactively. Integrability with Existing Infrastructure Developing robust artificial intelligence (AI) models requires more than the best algorithms and evaluation strategies. Instead, the emphasis should be on an integrated infrastructure that seamlessly handles data collection, storage, preprocessing, and curation. As annotation is a vital element of a data curation pipeline, a tool that quickly integrates with your existing machinery can significantly boost productivity and quality. Businesses that fail to build an integrated system operate multiple disparate systems without synchronization. This results in increased manual effort to organize data assets, which can lead to suboptimal workflows and poor deployment procedures. Cost A data annotation tool that provides flexible pricing options to upgrade or downgrade your plans according to project needs makes financing decisions easier, paving the way for a faster return on investment (ROI). A cost-effective tool helps with executive buy-in as it becomes easier for the management to convince the executive team to undertake innovative projects and continue the development process without budgetary hurdles. Learn how to automate video annotation by reading our guide on video annotation automation. How to Select a Video Annotation Tool Due to the challenges discussed above, choosing a tool that meets your required standards becomes time-consuming and delays the launch of your CV application. So, the following sections explain the primary factors you should consider when investing in a labeling platform. They will help you quickly filter out the desired features to speed up your annotation processes. What are Your Annotation Needs? Understanding the exact annotation requirements should be the first step in selecting a tool, and the following factors must be included: The Type of Computer Vision (CV) Application CV models for applications like autonomous driving and real-time surveillance call for a scalable annotation platform to label large amounts of real-time video feeds. The type of application will also determine what category of annotation is necessary and whether a particular tool offers the required functionality. Critical applications like medical imaging require pixel-level segmentation masks, while bounding boxes will suffice for security surveillance. Automation for Video-specific Complexities Videos with higher frames-per-second (FPS) can take longer to label since annotators must classify objects within each frame. Additionally, videos with higher motion speeds can cause blurred-out frames or motion blur. This is especially true for action recognition CV models, where labeling frequently changing human actions becomes challenging. The solution to these issues is to have tools with automated labeling techniques that use pre-trained models (AI-assisted annotations) to label samples in real time using data pipelines with interpolation algorithms to fix blurry frames. Platform Compatibility and User Interface (UI) A tool compatible with several operating systems and environments can improve integrability and prevent disruptions to annotation projects. Similarly, the tool’s UI must be intuitive so annotators can quickly learn to use the platform, reducing the time required for staff training. Video Format Compatibility For optimal data processing, annotation tools must support multiple video formats, such as MP4, AVI, FLV, etc., and provide features to convert annotations into suitable formats to train CV models quickly. Video Annotation Tool: Must-have Functionalities Based on the above considerations, a video annotation tool must have: Features to natively label video datasets frame-by-frame for advanced object tracking so that minimal downsampling is required. There are basic types of annotations, such as keypoint annotation for pose estimation, 2D bounding boxes, cuboids, polylines, and polygons for labeling objects within a single video frame. Advanced annotation techniques include semantic segmentation, object tracking algorithms, and temporal annotation. Suitable APIs and SDKs can be used to integrate with existing data pipelines programmatically. While these factors are essential for a video annotation tool, it is also advisable to have a manual review process to assess annotation accuracy for high-precision tasks, such as medical imaging, surgical videos, and autonomous navigations. Encord Annotate addresses all the above concerns by offering scalable features and algorithms to handle project complexities, extensive labeling techniques, and automation to speed up the annotation process. How Do You Evaluate Annotation Efficiency? The annotation tool should allow you to compute annotation speed and accuracy through intuitive metrics that reflect actual annotation performance. The list below mentions a few popular metrics for measuring the two factors. Metrics for Measuring Annotation Speed Annotations per hour: Determine the 'annotations per hour' to gauge productivity, contextualizing it with industry norms or project expectations. Frames per minute: Evaluate 'frames per minute' to understand annotator performance in video contexts, considering the video complexity. Time per annotation: Use 'time per annotation' to assess individual annotation task efficiency, adjusting expectations based on the required annotation detail. Metrics for Measuring Annotation Accuracy F1-score: Use the F1-score to balance precision and recall scores, explaining its calculation through Intersection over Union (IoU) in video contexts—IoU determines precision and recall in video frames. Cohen’s Kappa and Fleiss’ Kappa: Use Cohen's Kappa and Fleiss’ Kappa for annotator agreement analysis, providing context for when each is most applicable. Krippendorff’s Alpha: Consider Krippendorff’s alpha for diverse or incomplete datasets, detailing its significance in ensuring consistent annotation quality. Ability to Process Complex Annotation Scenarios Ensure the tool can effectively manage challenges like object occlusion, multiple object tracking, and variable backgrounds. Provide examples to illustrate how these are addressed. Discuss the tool's adaptability to different annotation complexities and how its features facilitate accurate labeling in varied scenarios. Customization and Integrations Customization and integrability with ML models are valuable capabilities that can help you tailor a tool’s annotation features to address use-case-specific needs.  Know if they allow you to use open-source annotation libraries to improve existing functionality. Encord Annotate offers multiple quality metrics to analyze annotation quality and ensures high efficiency that meets current industry standards. How Flexible do you Want the Features to be? While the features mentioned above directly relate to annotation functionality, video annotation software must have other advanced tools to streamline the process for computer vision projects. These include tools for managing ontology, handling long-form video footage, quality control, and AI-based labeling. Ontology Management Ontologies are high-level concepts that specify what and how to label and whether additional information is necessary for model training. Users can define hierarchical structures to relate multiple concepts and create a richer annotated dataset for training CV models. For instance, an ontology for autonomous driving applications specifies that the labeler must annotate a car with 2D bounding boxes and provide information about its model, color, type, etc. These ontologies allow annotators to correctly identify objects of interest in complex videos and include additional information relevant to scene understanding.  Clarifying how users can adapt these ontologies across various project types demonstrates the tool's adaptability to diverse research and industry needs. Features to Manage Long-form Videos Long-form videos pose unique challenges, as annotators must track longer video sequences and manage labels in more frames. Suitable tools that allow you to move back and forth between frames and timelines simplify video analysis. You can easily navigate through the footage to examine objects and scenes. Segmentation: Segmentation is also a valuable feature to look out for, as it allows you to break long videos into smaller segments to create manageable annotation tasks. For instance, automated checks that monitor labels across segments help you identify discrepancies and ensure identical objects have consistent labeling within each segment. Version Control: Finally, version control features let you save and reload previous annotation work, helping you track your progress and synchronize tasks across multiple annotators. Tools that allow annotators to store annotation revision history and tag particular versions help maintain a clear audit trail.  These functionalities improve user experience by reducing fatigue and mitigating errors, as annotators can label long-form videos in separate stages. It also helps with quick recovery in case a particular version becomes corrupt. Customizable Workflows and Performance Monitoring Annotation tools that let you customize workflows and guidelines based on project requirements can improve annotation speed by removing redundancies and building processes that match existing annotators’ expertise. Further, intuitive dashboards that display relevant performance metrics regarding annotation progress and quality can allow management to track issues and make data-driven decisions to boost operational efficiency. Inter-annotator agreement (IAA), annotation speed, and feedback metrics that signify revision cycles are most useful in monitoring annotation efficiency.  For instance, an increasing number of revisions denotes inconsistencies and calls for a root-cause analysis to identify fundamental issues.  AI-assisted Labeling AI-assisted labeling that involves developing models for domain-specific annotation tasks can be costly, as the process requires manual effort to label sufficient samples for pre-training the labeling algorithms. An alternative approach is using techniques like interpolation, semantic and instance segmentation, object tracking, and detection to label video frames without developing a custom model. For example, video annotation tools with object-tracking algorithms can automatically identify objects of interest and fill in the gaps using only a small set of manually labeled data. The method enhances annotation efficiency as annotators do not have to train a separate model from scratch and only label a few items while leaving the rest for AI. Quality Assurance and Access Control Regardless of the level of automation, labeling is error-prone, as it is challenging to annotate each object in all video frames correctly. This limitation requires a tool with quality assurance features, such as feedback cycles, progress trackers, and commenting protocols. These features help human annotators collaborate with experts to identify and fix errors. Efficient access control features also become crucial for managing access across different teams and assigning relevant roles to multiple members within a project. The Encord platform features robust AI-based annotation algorithms, allowing you to integrate custom models, build tailored workflows, and create detailed ontologies to manage long-form videos. What Type of Vendor Are You Looking for? The next vital step in evaluating a tool is assessing different vendors and comparing their annotation services and platforms against standard benchmarks while factoring in upfront and ongoing costs. A straightforward strategy is to list the required features for your annotation project and draw a comparison table to determine which platforms offer these features and at what cost. Here are a few points you should address: Managed Service vs. Standalone Platform: You must see whether you require a managed service or a standalone application. While a managed service frees you from annotating the data in-house, a standalone tool offers more security and transparency in the annotation process. A side-by-side comparison detailing each model's implications on your workflow and data governance practices can guide your decision. Onboarding Costs: Analyze all costs associated with adopting and using the tool, distinguishing between one-time onboarding fees, recurring licensing costs, and any potential hidden fees. Consider creating a multi-year cost projection to understand the total cost of ownership and how it compares to the projected ROI. Ecosystem Strength: A vendor with a robust community and ecosystem offers additional resources to maximize the value of your tool investment, including access to a broader range of insights, support, and potential integrations.  Long-term Suitability: Other relevant factors in evaluating vendors include customer reviews, vendor’s track record in providing regular updates, supporting innovative projects, long-term clients, and customer support quality. Analyzing these will help you assess whether the vendor is a suitable long-run strategic partner who will proactively support your company’s mission and vision.  What is the Standard of Post-purchase Services Investing in a video annotation tool is a long-term strategic action involving repeated interactions with the vendor to ensure a smooth transition process and continuous improvements. Below are a few essential services that vendors must offer post-purchase to provide greater value and meet changing demands as per project requirements. Training Resources: The vendor must provide easy access to relevant training materials, such as detailed documentation, video tutorials, and on-site support, to help users fully utilize the tool’s feature set from the start. Data Security Protocols: While compliance with established security standards, including GDPR, HIPAA, ISO, and SOC, is crucial, the vendor must continuously update its encryption protocols to address the dynamic nature of data and rising privacy concerns. Post-purchase, the vendor must ensure robust security measures by following ethical practices and analyzing sensitive information in your project to implement suitable safeguards to prevent breaches and data misuse. Customer Support: The vendor must offer 24/7 customer support helplines for bug resolution and workflow assistance. Want to know the most crucial features of a video annotation tool? Read our article on the five features of video annotation. Encord complies with HIPAA, FDA, and CE standards, making it an ideal tool for sensitive annotation tasks, especially for medical use cases. Evaluating a Video Annotation Tool: Key Takeaways As CV models permeate multiple domains, such as healthcare, retail, and manufacturing, video annotation tools will be critical determinants of the success of modern CV projects. Below are a few key factors you should consider when evaluating a video annotation platform. Annotation Requirements: The answer will allow you to filter out the desired feature set and scalability demands. Evaluation of Annotation Efficiency: Understanding evaluation methodologies will help you select a tool that offers suitable metrics to assess annotation speed and accuracy. Feature Flexibility: Ontology management, AI-assisted labeling, and options to customize workflows are crucial features that allow you to tailor the tool’s feature set to your requirements. Strategic Vendor Evaluation: Analyzing upfront and ongoing costs helps you determine the total cost of ownership and whether the vendor is a suitable long-term strategic partner. Quality of Post-purchase Services: With the ever-changing data landscape, you need a vendor that constantly updates its security and training protocols to keep pace with ongoing developments.

  What is Stable Diffusion 3? Stable Diffusion 3 (SD3) is an advanced text-to-image generation model developed by Stability AI. Leveraging a latent diffusion approach and a Multimodal Diffusion Transformer architecture, SD3 generates high-quality images from textual descriptions. SD3 demonstrates superior performance compared to state-of-the-art text-to-image generation systems such as DALL·E 3, Midjourney v6, and Ideogram v1. On human preference evaluations, SD3 has shown advancements in typography and prompt adherence, setting a new standard in text-to-image generation   Stable Diffusion 3 is the latest version of the Stable Diffusion models. Stable Diffusion is built for text-to-image generation, leveraging a latent diffusion model trained on 512x512 images from a subset of the LAION-5B database. Supported by a generous compute donation from Stability AI and backing from LAION, this model combines a latent diffusion approach with a frozen CLIP ViT-L/14 text encoder for conditioning on text prompts. Exploring Stable Diffusion 3: Text-to-Image Model One of the notable features of SD3 is its architecture, which includes a Multimodal Diffusion Transformer (MMDiT). This architecture utilizes separate sets of weights for image and language representations, leading to improved text understanding and spelling capabilities compared to previous versions of SD3. The core architecture of Stable Diffusion 3 is based on a diffusion transformer architecture combined with flow matching techniques. This combination allows for the efficient and effective generation of high-quality images conditioned on textual input. Stable Diffusion 3 models vary in size, ranging from 800 million to 8 billion parameters, to cater to different needs for scalability and quality in generating images from text prompts. The goal of Stable Diffusion 3 is to align with the core values of the development team, including democratizing access to AI technologies. By offering open-source models of varying sizes and capabilities, Stable Diffusion 3 aims to provide users with a range of options to meet their creative needs, whether they require faster processing times or higher image quality. Let’s dive into the two core concepts of Stable Diffusion 3:  Diffusion Transformer (DiT) Diffusion Transformers or DiTs are a class of diffusion models that utilize transformer architecture for the generation of images. Unlike traditional approaches that rely on the U-Net backbone, DiTs operate on latent patches, offering improved scalability and performance. Images were generated using Diffusion Transformer Through an analysis of scalability using metrics such as Gflops (floating point operations per second), it has been observed that diffusion transformers (DiTs) with higher Gflops, achieved through increased transformer depth/width or a higher number of input tokens, consistently exhibit lower Frechet Inception Distance (FID). This implies improved performance in terms of image quality. For more information on Diffusion Transformers, read the paper: Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformers.   While transformers have gained popularity in fields like natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision tasks, their use in image-level generative models has been limited. This tendency is reflected in the general preference for convolutional U-Net architecture in diffusion models. But U-Net's inductive bias doesn’t necessarily make it the best choice for diffusion models, prompting researchers to explore alternative architectures such as transformers. Inspired by Vision Transformers, DiTs ensure scalability, efficiency, and high-quality sample generation, making them a good option for generative modeling. OpenAI’s recent text-to-video model uses Diffusion Transformers in its architecture. For more information, read the blog: OpenAI Releases New Text-to-Video Model, Sora. Flow Matching: A Model Training Technique The core concept of Flow Matching (FM) redefines Continuous Normalizing Flows (CNFs) by focusing on regressing vector fields of fixed conditional probability paths, eliminating the need for simulations. FM is versatile and can accommodate various types of Gaussian probability paths, including traditional diffusion paths used in diffusion models. It provides a robust and stable alternative for training diffusion models, which are commonly used in generative modeling tasks. Empirical evaluations on ImageNet, a widely used dataset for image classification tasks, demonstrate that FM consistently outperforms traditional diffusion-based methods in terms of both likelihood (how probable the generated samples are) and sample quality. Moreover, FM enables fast and reliable sample generation using existing numerical Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE) solvers. For more information on FM, read the paper: Flow Matching for Generative Modeling. Stable Diffusion 3 Architecture Overview of Stable Diffusion 3’s architecture The architecture of Stable Diffusion 3 incorporates both text and image modalities, leveraging pretrained models to derive suitable representations for each. Here's a breakdown of the key components and mechanisms involved: General Setup SD3 follows the framework of Latent Diffusion Models (LDM) for training text-to-image models in the latent space of a pretrained autoencoder. Text conditioning is encoded using pretrained, frozen text models, similar to previous approaches. Multi-Modal Diffusion Transformer (MMDiT) SD3's architecture builds upon the DiT (Diffusion Transformer) architecture, which focuses on class conditional image generation. In SD3, embeddings of the timestep and text conditioning are used as inputs to the modulation mechanism, enabling conditional generation. To address the coarse-grained nature of pooled text representations, SD3 incorporates information from the sequence representation of text inputs. Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis Sequence Construction SD3 constructs a sequence comprising embeddings of both text and image inputs. This sequence includes positional encodings and flattened patches of the latent pixel representation. After embedding and concatenating the patch encoding and text encoding to a common dimensionality, SD3 applies a sequence of modulated attention and Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs). Weights of Each Modality Given the conceptual differences between text and image embeddings, SD3 employs separate sets of weights for each modality. While using two independent transformers for each modality, SD3 combines the sequences of both modalities for the attention operation, enabling both representations to work in their respective spaces while considering each other. Experiments on SD3 to Improve Performance Improving Rectified Flows by Reweighting Stable Diffusion 3 adopts a Rectified Flow (RF) formulation, connecting data and noise on a linear trajectory during training. This approach results in straighter inference paths, enabling sampling with fewer steps.  SD3 introduces a trajectory sampling schedule, assigning more weight to the middle parts of the trajectory to tackle more challenging prediction tasks. Comparative tests against 60 other diffusion trajectories, including LDM, EDM, and ADM, across multiple datasets, metrics, and sampler settings, demonstrate the consistent performance improvement of the re-weighted RF variant. Scaling Rectified Flow Transformer Models A scaling study is conducted for text-to-image synthesis using the reweighted Rectified Flow formulation and MMDiT backbone. Models ranging from 15 blocks with 450M parameters to 38 blocks with 8B parameters exhibit a smooth decrease in validation loss with increasing model size and training steps. Evaluation using automatic image-alignment metrics (GenEval) and human preference scores (ELO) demonstrates a strong correlation between these metrics and validation loss, suggesting the latter as a robust predictor of overall model performance. The scaling trend shows no signs of saturation, indicating potential for further performance improvement in the future. Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis Flexible Text Encoders Stable Diffusion 3 optimizes memory usage by removing the memory-intensive 4.7B parameter T5 text encoder for inference, resulting in significantly reduced memory requirements with minimal performance loss. The removal of the text encoder does not impact visual aesthetics, with a win rate of 50%, but slightly reduces text adherence with a win rate of 46%. However, it is recommended to include T5 for full power in generating written text, as typography generation experiences larger performance drops without it, with a win rate of 38%. Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis. Capabilities of Stable Diffusion 3 (SD3) Though we know very little about the capabilities of stable diffusion 3, here is what we can interpret based on the sample results shared: Multi-Subject Prompt Handling In text-to-image generation, multi-subject prompts include detailed descriptions of scenes, compositions, or scenarios involving more than one object, person, or concept. These prompts provide rich and complex information for the model to generate corresponding images that accurately represent the described scene or scenario. Handling multi-subject prompts effectively requires the text-to-image model to understand and interpret the relationships between different subjects mentioned in the prompt to generate coherent and realistic images. Prompt A painting of an astronaut riding a pig wearing a tutu holding a pink umbrella, on the ground next to the pig is a robin bird wearing a top hat, and in the corner are the words "stable diffusion" SD3 Output Text Rendering SD3 works well in accurately rendering text within generated images, ensuring that textual elements such as fonts, styles, and sizes are represented properly. This capability enhances the integration of text-based descriptions into the generated imagery, contributing to a seamless and cohesive visual narrative. Prompt Graffiti on the wall with the text "When SD3?" SD3 Output Fine Detail Representation SD3 delivers superior image quality compared to previous models. This improvement ensures that the generated images are more detailed, realistic, and visually appealing. Prompt Studio photograph closeup of a chameleon over a black background SD3 Output Prompt Adherence SD3 demonstrates strong adherence to provided prompts, ensuring that the generated images accurately reflect the details and specifications outlined in the input text. This enhances the creation of desired visual content with minimal deviation from the intended concept or scene. Prompt Night photo of a sports car with the text "SD3" on the side, the car is on a race track at high speed, a huge road sign with the text "faster" SD3 Output Photorealism SD3 excels in producing images with high fidelity and photorealism, surpassing previous iterations in capturing fine details and textures. Its generated images closely resemble real-world photographs or hand-drawn artwork, imbuing them with a sense of authenticity. Prompt Fisheye lens photo where waves hit a lighthouse in Scotland, black waves. SD3 Output Performance of Stable Diffusion 3 Based on comprehensive evaluations comparing Stable Diffusion 3 with various open and closed-source text-to-image generation models, including SDXL, SDXL Turbo, Stable Cascade, Playground v2.5, Pixart-α, DALL·E 3, Midjourney v6, and Ideogram v1, SD3 emerges as a standout performer across multiple criteria. Human evaluators assessed output images from each model based on prompt following, typography quality, and visual aesthetics. In all these areas, Stable Diffusion 3 either matches or surpasses current state-of-the-art text-to-image generation systems. Comparison of baseline SD3 against other SOTA text-to-image generation models Even in early, unoptimized inference tests on consumer hardware, the largest SD3 model with 8B parameters demonstrates impressive performance, states Stability AI. It fits within the 24GB VRAM of an RTX 4090 and generates a 1024x1024 resolution image in just 34 seconds using 50 sampling steps. Stability AI also states that the initial release of Stable Diffusion 3 will offer multiple variations, ranging from 800 million to 8 billion parameter models, to ensure accessibility and eliminate hardware barriers for users. Click here to join the waitlist!   Comparative Performance Analysis: Stable Diffusion 3, Dalle-3, and Midjourney Here are the few experiments we carried out to compare the three popular text-to-image generation models based on the results shared by Stability AI. Text Generation Prompt Epic anime artwork of a wizard atop a mountain at night casting a cosmic spell into the dark sky that says "Stable Diffusion 3" made out of colorful energy Text Generation Output - Stable Diffusion 3 (SD 3) Text Generation Output - Dalle-3 Text Generation Output - Midjourney Multi-Subject Prompt Resting on the kitchen table is an embroidered cloth with the text 'good night' and an embroidered baby tiger. Next to the cloth, there is a lit candle. The lighting is dim and dramatic. Multi-Subject Text Prompt Output - Stable Diffusion 3 (SD 3) Multi-Subject Prompt Output - Dalle-3 Multi-Subject Prompt Output - Midjourney Text Stylization Prompt Photo of a 90's desktop computer on a work desk, on the computer screen it says "welcome". On the wall in the background we see beautiful graffiti with the text "SD3" very large on the wall. Text Stylization Prompt Output - Stable Diffusion 3 Dalle-3 Midjourney SD3: Responsible AI Practices As Stable Diffusion plans on releasing the model weights and training procedure as open source shortly, it commits to safe and responsible AI practices at every stage. From the model's initial training to its testing, evaluation, and eventual release, SD3 aims to prevent its misuse by bad actors. To uphold these standards, SD3 has implemented various safeguards in preparation for the early preview of Stable Diffusion 3. These measures include continuous collaboration with researchers, experts, and the community to innovate further with integrity. Through this ongoing collaboration, SD3 aims to ensure that its generative AI remains open, safe, and universally accessible. Potential Drawbacks The Stable Diffusion 3 models have made significant advancements, but they still could have some limitations. The paper doesn’t mention any limitations of the models. But here are some possible limitations that are common in text-to-image generation models: Fidelity and Realism Generated images may lack fidelity and realism compared to real-world photographs or hand-drawn artwork. Fine details and textures may not be accurately represented, resulting in images that appear artificial or "uncanny." For example, the image below lacks fine details like the shadow underneath the bus suggesting light coming from behind it, and the shadow of a building on the street indicating light coming from the left of the image. Ambiguity Text descriptions can sometimes be ambiguous or subjective, leading to varied interpretations by the model. This ambiguity can result in generated images that may not fully capture the intended scene or elements described in the text. Contextual Understanding Text-to-image models may struggle with understanding contextual nuances and cultural references, leading to inaccuracies or misinterpretations in the generated images. For example, understanding metaphors or abstract concepts described in the text may pose challenges for the model. Resource Intensiveness Training and running text-to-image generation models can be computationally intensive and require significant computational resources, including high-performance GPUs or TPUs. This limitation can impact the scalability and accessibility of these models for widespread use. TripoSR: 3D Object Generation from Single Along with their SOTA text-to-image generation model, Stability AI also released TripoSR, a fast 3D object reconstruction model. TripoSR: Fast 3D Object Reconstruction from a Single Image TripoSR generates high-quality 3D models from a single image in under a second, making it incredibly fast and practical for various applications. Unlike other models, TripoSR operates efficiently even without a GPU, ensuring accessibility for a wide range of users. The model weights and source code are available for download under the MIT license, allowing for commercial, personal, and research use. For more information, read the official research paper available on arXiv: TripoSR: Fast 3D Object Reconstruction from a Single Image. Inspired by the Large Reconstruction Model For Single Image to 3D (LRM), TripoSR caters to the needs of professionals in entertainment, gaming, industrial design, and architecture. It offers responsive outputs for visualizing detailed 3D objects, creating detailed models in a fraction of the time of other models. Tested on an Nvidia A100, TripoSR generates draft-quality 3D outputs (textured meshes) in around 0.5 seconds, outperforming other open image-to-3D models like OpenLRM.  For more information on Stable Diffusion 3, read the official research paper available on arXiv: Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis.   Stable Diffusion 3: Key Highlights Multimodal Diffusion Transformer Architecture: SD3's innovative architecture incorporates separate sets of weights for image and language representations, resulting in improved text understanding and spelling capabilities compared to previous versions. Superior Performance: In comparative evaluations, SD3 has demonstrated superior performance when compared to state-of-the-art text-to-image generation systems such as DALL·E 3, Midjourney v6, and Ideogram v1. Human preference evaluations have highlighted advancements in typography and prompt adherence, setting a new standard in this field. Scalability and Flexibility: SD3 offers models of varying sizes, ranging from 800 million to 8 billion parameters, to cater to different needs for scalability and image quality. This flexibility ensures that users can select models that best suit their creative requirements. Open-Source Models: SD3 offers different choices and improvements in creating images from text.  This openness fosters collaboration and innovation within the AI community while promoting transparency and accessibility in AI technologies.

After the historical introduction to Iphone in 2007, Apple has come up with yet another technological advancement - Apple Vision Pro. It is set to revolutionize again how we consume digital content. Let’s get into the details of the mixed reality headset and see its potential application in radiology. Introduction to Vision Pro The Apple Vision Pro represents a significant milestone in mixed reality (MR) technologies. Building upon decades of research and development in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), the Vision Pro is the culmination of advancements in display technology, processing capabilities, eye-tracking systems, and artificial intelligence (AI).  It's a really important moment because it brings us closer to a future where virtual and real worlds blend together in amazing ways, offering new and exciting experiences in different areas like education, entertainment, and healthcare. Historical Evolution of Apple Vision Pro Apple has a rich history of introducing groundbreaking technological advancements over the years, starting with the revolutionary iPhone in 2007, followed by the iPad and the development of iOS. The App Store further expanded their ecosystem, offering a vast array of digital content. Their focus on technological advancements continued with the integration of voice commands, advancements in digital content delivery, and innovations in electronic health records (EHR). Additionally, their acquisition of Visage Imaging strengthened their presence in the medical imaging field. Building on this legacy of innovation, Apple now introduces the next leap forward in technology with the Apple Vision Pro.  Let's explore its features and how this mixed reality headset is poised to redefine our interaction with digital content in the healthcare landscape and beyond. Features of Apple Vision Pro Display Technology: The Vision Pro incorporates dual micro-OLED displays, each boasting over 23 million pixels, surpassing the resolution of current VR standards. This high pixel density reduces the screen-door effect and enhances visual fidelity, offering crisp and clear images. Processing and Performance: Engineered with a dual-chip architecture comprising Apple’s M2 chip and a custom R1 chip, the Vision Pro delivers unparalleled processing power and efficiency. Its low-latency design ensures a fluid and responsive MR environment, setting new industry standards. Eye Tracking Technology:  Advanced eye-tracking technology integrated into the Vision Pro utilizes high-speed cameras and LEDs to capture and interpret eye movements accurately. This enables intuitive, gaze-based interaction within the MR environment, revolutionizing user experience. AI and Machine Learning Integration: Leveraging AI algorithms, the Vision Pro achieves real-time spatial awareness and environmental mapping, enhancing personalized and adaptive MR experiences. Machine learning models adapt interfaces and interactions based on individual user behaviors, optimizing engagement over time. Spatial Computing and VisionOS: Apple used spatial computing to allow the users to interact with the extended reality. It also created an operating system for it called VisionOS. Spatial computing in VisionOS allows users to interact with Apple Vision Pro using their eyes, hands, and voice, creating intuitive and magical experiences. Apps in VisionOS can fill the space around users, scale to the perfect size, react to room lighting, cast shadows, and be moved anywhere.  Apple Vision Pro: User Experience The user experience with the Apple Vision Pro is characterized by its seamless integration of advanced technologies to deliver an immersive, intuitive, and personalized MR journey. Visual Immersion: The Vision Pro's high-resolution micro-OLED displays and reduced latency provide users with unparalleled visual immersion, minimizing distractions and enhancing presence within the virtual environment. Intuitive Interaction: Advanced eye-tracking technology enables natural, gaze-based interaction, reducing reliance on hand controllers and offering more intuitive control mechanisms. This hands-free approach enhances user comfort and engagement. Personalization and Adaptation: Leveraging AI and machine learning, the Vision Pro tailors experiences to individual user preferences and behaviors, creating a highly personalized MR journey. Adaptive interfaces and content delivery optimize engagement and learning outcomes. Interface Design of Vision Pro The interface design of the Apple Vision Pro prioritizes simplicity, intuitiveness, and accessibility to ensure a seamless user experience. Minimalist Interface: The interface design emphasizes simplicity, presenting users with a clean and intuitive layout that minimizes distractions and maximizes focus on the MR content. Gaze-Based Controls: Leveraging advanced eye-tracking technology, the interface incorporates gaze-based controls, allowing users to navigate menus, select options, and interact with objects effortlessly using their gaze. Adaptive Interfaces: Machine learning algorithms adapt interfaces based on user behavior and preferences, customizing the MR experience to optimize engagement and usability for each individual user. Extended Reality (XR) in Radiology Extended Reality (XR) technologies, including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), have revolutionized the field of radiology by offering innovative solutions for intervention guidance, medical training, and teaching. These technologies provide radiologists with advanced tools to analyze complex medical images in three-dimensional (3D) formats, offering a deeper understanding of human anatomy and facilitating diagnostic radiology. Spatial Computing Spatial computing, a key component of XR technologies, enables radiologists to interact with virtual images of tissues, organs, vessels, and abnormalities in 3D formats. This immersive experience allows for a comprehensive exploration of medical imaging datasets, providing precise information and enhancing diagnostic accuracy. By transforming imaging datasets into holographic-like virtual images, spatial computing facilitates a better understanding of medical conditions and supports evidence-based planning for medical procedures. Vision Pro Headsets The introduction of Vision Pro headsets could enhance the visualization capabilities of radiologists, offering holographic displays of real-time 3D images of vascular anatomy. These extended reality headsets provide an immersive experience that surpasses traditional 2D imaging tools, allowing radiologists to view the internal structures of the body in three dimensions. This advanced visualization technology would improve the accuracy of physical therapy methods, support simulation-based training for medical procedures, and foster collaboration among medical professionals. Virtual Reality Surgical Visualization Virtual reality surgical visualization is a groundbreaking application of XR in radiology, empowering surgeons to enhance the efficiency and precision of surgical procedures. By collaborating with colleagues and visualizing complex 3D images in VR environments, surgeons can develop successful surgical plans for ophthalmology, microsurgeries, and neurosurgery. VR technology enables researchers to analyze and present medical images more effectively than traditional 2D scans, facilitating highly accurate measurements and enhancing patient care. 3D DICOM Image Visualizations DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) images, commonly used in radiology, provide essential visual data for diagnosing medical conditions. The integration of VR headsets into radiology practices enhances the visualization of DICOM images by combining traditional 2D annotations with immersive 3D formats. The combination of these technologies would help radiologists understand medical images better, enhancing diagnostic capabilities and improving patient care. Multi-Modality Support Modern DICOM image visualization tools offer support for multiple imaging modalities, including X-ray, MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), CT (Computed Tomography), and ultrasound. This multi-modality support allows radiologists to seamlessly integrate data from various imaging techniques, providing a holistic view of the patient's medical condition and improving diagnostic accuracy. 2D and 3D Augmented DICOM Viewer Augmented DICOM viewers combine traditional two-dimensional (2D) image viewing with advanced three-dimensional (3D) visualization capabilities. These viewers enable radiologists to switch between 2D and 3D views seamlessly, allowing for a more detailed analysis of DICOM images. Augmented DICOM viewers also offer interactive features, such as zooming, panning, and rotation, enhancing the radiologist's ability to examine medical images from different perspectives. 4K Rendering 4K rendering technology enhances the quality of DICOM image visualizations by providing ultra-high-definition images with exceptional clarity and detail. This high-resolution rendering allows radiologists to identify subtle anatomical features and abnormalities that may not be visible with lower-resolution imaging techniques. By improving image quality, 4K rendering enhances diagnostic accuracy and facilitates more precise medical interventions. In addition to traditional 4K rendering technology, the utilization of HTJ2K (High Throughput JPEG 2000) further enhances the quality of DICOM image visualizations. HTJ2K is a cutting-edge compression standard specifically designed for high-resolution medical imaging. By efficiently compressing large DICOM image datasets without compromising image quality, HTJ2K enables radiologists to visualize ultra-high-definition images with exceptional clarity and detail. By combining 4K rendering with HTJ2K compression, radiologists can leverage ultra-high-definition DICOM image visualizations to improve diagnostic accuracy and facilitate more precise medical interventions. This integration of advanced rendering and compression technologies represents a significant advancement in medical imaging, ultimately enhancing patient care and outcomes in radiology. For more information, read Announcing HTJ2K Support for DICOM Files in Encord   Enhanced Diagnostic Accuracy The combination of 3D DICOM image visualizations, augmented DICOM viewers, and 4K rendering technology contributes to enhanced diagnostic accuracy in radiology. Radiologists can visualize medical images with unprecedented detail and clarity, leading to more accurate diagnoses and treatment plans. By leveraging advanced visualization tools, radiologists can improve patient outcomes and provide better quality of care. Use Cases of Mixed Reality in Healthcare Augmented Reality in Surgical Systems Augmented reality (AR) technology is revolutionizing surgical systems by providing real-time visual guidance to surgeons during operations. Traditional surgical visualization methods, such as ultrasound, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and computed tomography (CT) scans, have limitations in integrating pre-operative and intra-operative information, leading to a mismatch and potentially extending operation durations. However, AR-based navigation systems address these challenges by overlaying virtual images onto the surgical field, allowing surgeons to visualize 3D models derived from CT and MRI data and providing real-time surgical guidance. Integration of Eye Motion and Gesture Controls One of the key features of AR-based surgical systems is the integration of eye motion and gesture controls. Surgeons can navigate through the augmented reality interface using eye movements and gestures, minimizing the need to switch attention between the surgical scene and auxiliary displays. This intuitive interaction method enhances surgical precision and efficiency by enabling surgeons to access critical information and manipulate virtual images with minimal disruption. Surgeons can maintain focus on the surgical scene while simultaneously navigating through the AR interface, resulting in smoother workflows and improved patient care.  Building Collaborative Healthcare Space Augmented Reality (AR) technology helps surgical teams work together better. Through the overlay of virtual images onto the surgical field, AR-based systems facilitate a shared visualization of anatomical structures and surgical targets among all surgical team members. This shared visualization enhances communication and collaboration, allowing surgical team members to effectively coordinate their actions and make informed decisions in real-time. By providing a common understanding of the surgical procedure, AR technologies make the healthcare team work together smoothly. The collaborative environment facilitated by AR technology not only improves communication within the surgical team but also promotes interdisciplinary collaboration across different specialties. Surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists, and other healthcare professionals can seamlessly share information and insights. FDA Clearance FDA Approved AI/ML Medical Technologies The adoption of AR technology in surgical systems has gained momentum, with many AR-based navigation systems receiving clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA clearance ensures that these systems meet regulatory standards for safety and effectiveness, giving surgeons confidence in utilizing AR technology for surgical procedures. This regulatory clearance underscores the reliability and efficacy of AR-based surgical systems, further driving their adoption and integration into mainstream surgical practices. For more information, read the blog The Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Your AI Models Through FDA Approval   Vision Pro in Emergency Medicine The Apple Vision Pro would be instrumental in emergency medicine training by offering immersive and realistic simulations for medical trainees. These simulations provide a safe environment for trainees to practice various clinical scenarios, ranging from routine patient interactions to emergency response situations. Surgery Projections Medical trainees using Vision Pro or other MR headsets can benefit from lifelike simulations of surgical procedures, allowing them to practice and refine their surgical skills in a risk-free environment. The high-resolution displays and spatial audio of the Vision Pro enhance the realism of these simulations, providing trainees with valuable hands-on experience in emergency settings. Surgical Planning The Vision Pro or other MR headset would allow medical trainees to engage in surgical planning exercises, where they can visualize and simulate surgical procedures before performing them on actual patients. This preoperative planning would help trainees develop effective surgical strategies and enhance their understanding of complex surgical techniques. Increased Patient Safety By providing realistic simulations and training scenarios, the Vision Pro could contribute to increased patient safety in emergency settings. Medical trainees who have undergone training with the MR headsets are better prepared to handle real-world emergency environments, reducing the risk of errors and improving overall patient care outcomes. Advancements in Radiology in Oncology Cancer Diagnostic Imaging Advanced computer vision for radiology techniques has improved cancer diagnostic imaging by providing detailed insights into the structure, function, and behavior of tumors. Modalities such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and ultrasound, combined with advanced imaging protocols and image analysis algorithms, allow clinicians to visualize tumors with unprecedented clarity and accuracy. These imaging modalities play an important role in cancer diagnosis by: Early Detection: Advanced imaging techniques enable the detection of small tumors and precancerous lesions that may not be visible with conventional imaging methods, facilitating early intervention and improving patient outcomes. Accurate Staging: By precisely delineating the extent of tumor involvement and assessing the presence of metastases, vision radiology aids in the accurate staging of cancer, guiding treatment decisions and prognosis estimation. Treatment Planning: Detailed imaging provides valuable anatomical and functional information essential for treatment planning, including surgical resection, radiation therapy, and systemic therapies. Imaging-based tumor characterization helps tailor treatment strategies to individual patients, optimizing therapeutic efficacy while minimizing adverse effects. Monitoring Treatment Response: Serial imaging assessments enable the objective evaluation of treatment response, allowing clinicians to adapt therapy based on tumor dynamics and patient-specific factors. Response criteria such as RECIST (Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors) and PERCIST (PET Response Criteria in Solid Tumors) provide standardized metrics for assessing treatment efficacy and guiding clinical management. Cancer Treatment Using Vision Radiology In addition to its diagnostic utility, advanced vision radiology has various applications in guiding cancer treatment across various modalities: Image-Guided Interventions: Minimally invasive procedures such as biopsy, ablation, and radiofrequency thermal ablation rely on real-time imaging guidance to precisely target and treat tumors while preserving surrounding healthy tissues. Techniques such as CT-guided biopsy and MRI-guided focused ultrasound offer unparalleled accuracy in tumor localization and treatment delivery. Radiation Therapy Planning: Vision radiology facilitates precise radiation therapy planning through techniques such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), and proton therapy. Advanced imaging modalities enable the delineation of target volumes and critical structures, allowing for highly conformal radiation dose delivery while minimizing toxicity to adjacent organs. Image-Based Monitoring: Serial imaging assessments during and after treatment enable the longitudinal monitoring of treatment response, disease progression, and the emergence of treatment-related complications. Functional imaging techniques such as diffusion-weighted MRI and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI offer insights into tumor microenvironment changes, vascular perfusion, and treatment-induced effects, facilitating early detection of treatment response or recurrence. With the introduction of the Vision Pro headset, research and development in vision radiology is going to be fast-forwarded in the field of oncology. By providing detailed anatomical, functional, and molecular information, vision radiology enables precise cancer diagnosis, treatment planning, and monitoring. Pediatric Considerations in Vision Radiology When applying vision radiology techniques, special considerations must be taken into account for pediatric patients due to their unique physiological and developmental characteristics. The use of the Apple Vision Pro in pediatric radiology requires a tailored approach to ensure safe and effective imaging procedures for children. Minimizing Radiation Exposure: Pediatric patients are more sensitive to radiation than adults, making it crucial to minimize radiation exposure during imaging procedures. The Apple Vision Pro would enable the use of low-dose radiation protocols and advanced imaging algorithms to reduce the amount of radiation required for pediatric scans while maintaining diagnostic quality. Patient Comfort: Children may experience anxiety or discomfort during imaging procedures, leading to motion artifacts or suboptimal image quality. The immersive and engaging nature of the Apple Vision Pro can help reduce anxiety in pediatric patients by providing a distraction during imaging exams.  Size-Adapted Imaging Protocols: Pediatric patients have smaller body sizes and anatomical structures compared to adults, necessitating size-adapted imaging protocols. Vision radiology could offer customizable imaging parameters and protocols specifically designed for pediatric patients, ensuring optimal image quality and diagnostic accuracy while minimizing radiation exposure. Apple Vision Pro for Tele-Radiology The Apple Vision Pro could be instrumental for teleradiology and not just radiology. Radiology involves the interpretation of medical imaging studies in a clinical setting, whereas teleradiology enables remote interpretation and consultation using digital technology. With the Apple Vision Pro in medical use, radiologists and other healthcare providers could access medical imaging studies from anywhere, allowing for timely interpretation and diagnosis without the need for physical access to imaging equipment. Challenges in Computer Vision Radiology Implementing computer vision radiology presents various challenges that need to be addressed to ensure its effective and ethical use in healthcare settings. Ethical Considerations One of the primary challenges in computer vision radiology is navigating the ethical implications of using artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to interpret medical images. Ethical considerations include ensuring patient autonomy, informed consent, and transparency in the use of AI algorithms in radiological diagnosis. Privacy Concerns Computer vision radiology systems rely on vast amounts of patient data for training AI algorithms and interpreting medical images. Privacy concerns arise regarding the collection, storage, and sharing of sensitive patient information, highlighting the importance of robust data protection measures and compliance with privacy regulations, such as HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). Data Security Data security is a critical challenge in computer vision radiology, as medical imaging data is highly sensitive and must be protected from unauthorized access, tampering, or breaches. Ensuring data security involves implementing encryption protocols, access controls, and secure data storage solutions to safeguard patient information and maintain confidentiality. Addressing these challenges requires a multidisciplinary approach involving radiologists, data scientists, ethicists, and cybersecurity experts to develop ethical guidelines, privacy policies, and data security measures that uphold patient rights and ensure the responsible use of computer vision technology in radiology. Future Trends in Computer Vision for Radiology Artificial Intelligence (AI) Integration: AI-powered computer vision algorithms are increasingly being integrated into radiology workflows to automate image interpretation, assist in diagnosis, and improve workflow efficiency. Future advancements in AI algorithms will enable more accurate and personalized diagnostic insights, leading to enhanced patient care outcomes. 3D Imaging and Reconstruction: The adoption of advanced computer vision techniques for 3D imaging and reconstruction is revolutionizing radiological visualization. Future trends in this area include the development of real-time 3D reconstruction algorithms, volumetric rendering techniques, and virtual reality (VR) visualization tools, enabling immersive and interactive exploration of medical imaging data. Multi-Modal Fusion: Future advancements in computer vision for radiology will involve the fusion of multiple imaging modalities, such as MRI, CT, PET, and ultrasound, to provide comprehensive and complementary information for diagnosis and treatment planning. Explainable AI (XAI): As AI algorithms become increasingly prevalent in radiology, there is a growing need for explainable AI (XAI) techniques that can provide transparent and interpretable insights into algorithmic decision-making. Future trends in XAI for radiology will focus on developing interpretable AI models that can elucidate the underlying rationale behind diagnostic predictions, enhancing trust and acceptance among radiologists and clinicians. Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR): The integration of AR and MR technologies with computer vision in radiology holds immense potential for enhancing surgical planning, interventional procedures, and medical education. Future trends in this area will focus on developing AR/MR-based visualization tools at affordable prices, surgical navigation systems, and immersive educational platforms that leverage computer vision to provide real-time guidance and enhance the surgical and educational experience. Vision Radiology: Key Takeaways Introduction to Apple’s Vision Pro: The Apple Vision Pro merges virtual and real worlds for transformative experiences in healthcare. Advanced Features of Vision Pro: Equipped with dual micro-OLED displays, powerful processing, eye-tracking, and AI integration, the Vision Pro delivers unparalleled experiences. Extended Reality (XR) in Radiology: XR technologies like VR and AR revolutionize radiology, enhancing diagnostics and patient care. Use case of Mixed Reality in Healthcare: AR in the field of surgery, oncology, pediatrics, education, and training for emergency training.  Challenges in Computer Vision Radiology: Implementing computer vision presents challenges such as ethical considerations, privacy concerns, and data security. Future Trends: Anticipated developments include AI integration, 3D imaging, multi-modal fusion, explainable AI, and AR/MR integration for enhanced medical applications.

Supervised learning once dominated the artificial intelligence (AI) space, where the only way to train a deep neural network was to use an extensive amount of labeled data. However, this approach encounters significant hurdles in complex industrial and research domains, such as advanced computer vision (CV) and natural language processing (NLP) tasks.  The primary challenges include the scarcity of labeled data, the high cost of annotating complex available datasets, and the emergence of new data categories in specific domains like healthcare, where data on new diseases makes traditional CV models obsolete.  To overcome these challenges, the AI community has pivoted towards innovative frameworks allowing effective model training with limited data. Few-shot learning (FSL) emerges as a pivotal solution, creating scalable CV systems that learn from only a handful of samples. This revolutionary change leverages prior knowledge and meta-learning techniques to achieve robust performance, even in data-constrained environments. This article will discuss the approaches to few-shot learning (FSL) and its wide-ranging applications, highlighting its critical role in advancing AI capabilities with minimal data. You will learn about: Different few-shot learning variations. Few-shot learning classification algorithms. Few-shot detection algorithms. Before getting into the details, let’s first discuss a few fundamental concepts regarding what FSL is, how it works, its relationship with meta-learning, and essential terminology used in the AI community to describe FSL frameworks. What is Few-shot Learning? FSL is an approach for developing machine learning (ML) algorithms with only a few samples in the training datasets. This approach is distinct from traditional supervised learning, which relies on large volumes of data, by focusing on the ability to generalize from very few examples using advanced techniques and prior knowledge. Key Terminology in Few-shot Learning FSL involves a few technical terms requiring explanation before describing how it works. These standard terms include support and query sets, k-way, n-shot, meta-learner, and base-learner. Support set A support set in FSL consists of data samples from a particular class for training an FSL model. It acts as the backbone for the FSL framework by exposing the model to real-world scenarios and allowing it to capture intricate data patterns from a few samples. For instance, the support set for two classes—dogs and cats—can contain six training data points with three samples per class.  Query set The query set contains different samples from the same classes as the support set. It challenges the model with new examples to ensure it has learned the concept, not just memorized specifics. For instance, the query set can have images of dogs and cats with other breeds, colors, shapes, and backgrounds. The number of examples per class in the query set should be the same as in the support set. N-way N refers to the number of classes involved in the learning task (in the support and query sets). This means a setting where the support and query sets have two classes - cats and dogs - will be a 2-way classification problem (the model learns to distinguish between the two classes). K-shot K is the number of samples per class. An FSL model with three samples per class will be a 3-shot classification task (the model learns from three examples of each class). The usual term is N-way K-shot. So, a situation where you have three samples per class with two classes is a 2-way 3-shot problem. Meta-learner and Base-learner In FSL, the meta-learner optimizes across tasks to improve the base learner's ability to adapt to new tasks quickly. A base learner, starting from a random initialization, focuses on specific tasks, with its performance feedback used to update the meta-learner. Overall, FSL is not just about dealing with less data; it's about smartly leveraging what's available to make significant leaps in learning efficiency. Understanding these foundational concepts equips you to learn about FSL algorithms and their diverse applications. But first off, how does it work? How Does Few-shot Learning Work? Few-shot Learning (FSL) operates through a structured process known as an 'episode,' which simulates multiple training tasks. Each episode comprises a support set and a query set, representing a small sample from the overall dataset designed to teach and then test the model within a narrowly defined scope. Episode - An episode consists of multiple training tasks The FSL workflow begins with constructing a series of training tasks, each encapsulated in an episode. For a '3-way 1-shot' problem, each task is built around learning from one example of each of three different classes. The model uses the support set to learn the distinctive features of each class from these single examples. Then, it attempts to classify new examples in the query set, which are variations of the same classes not seen during training. Next, we evaluate the model through several test tasks. The essence of FSL is its ability to validate this learning in new, unseen classes during the evaluation phase. Each test task consists of a query and a support set. However, the sets contain samples of novel or unseen classes not present during training. Training and Test Tasks containing different classes Key to this process is the iterative exposure to varied episodes, each presenting unique classes and examples. This approach encourages the model to develop a flexible understanding of class characteristics and apply this knowledge to new classes it faces in test tasks. Often, the FSL problem is synonymous with meta-learning, as the FSL model understands patterns in datasets from diverse domains to label unseen classes based on prior knowledge. This makes FSL a meta-learning problem where the model learns how to learn. Few-shot Learning Approaches FSL adopts multiple approaches to address the challenge of learning from limited data, incorporating data-level, parameter-level, meta-learning, generative, and cross-modal techniques. Each strategy brings unique strengths to FSL, enabling models to generalize effectively across diverse scenarios. Data-Level FSL Approach The data-level approach is a straightforward concept that says to add more data in cases of insufficiently labeled examples. The premise is to use extensive, diverse datasets as a base for pre-training your model.  The samples in the base dataset will differ slightly from the support and query sets. The model learns general patterns from the base dataset during the training stage. You can then fine-tune the pre-trained model for novel classes with a few examples. For instance, we can train a model on a base dataset containing multiple labeled images of generic anatomical structures. We can then fine-tune the model on specific medical images with limited labeled samples. Parameter-Level FSL Approach This approach involves finding a set of model parameters that quickly converge to the most optimal parameter space for a specific problem. The objective is to reach a parameter space where the model will require only a few training steps to generalize to the new dataset without needing extensive labeled data. For instance, training an FSL model to classify a rare bird species will be slower and more prone to overfitting if we use random parameters for initialization. Instead, we can initialize the model with pre-trained parameters that already have prior knowledge regarding generic bird species. Techniques such as Bayesian optimization or specialized embedding spaces prepare the model with a knowledge base that facilitates quick adaptation (i.e., classifying rare bird species), minimizing the risk of overfitting despite the sparse data. DINOv2 models are good few-shot learnings with many applications, including image classification, object detection, and video understanding. Learn how they are pre-trained to handle many tasks out-of-the-box in this guide.   Meta-learning This approach is subdivided into metric-learning and gradient-based approaches. Metric-learning employs distance-based metrics to assess class similarity so that models can classify new examples by comparing them to known classes within embedding spaces. Gradient-based meta-learning, exemplified by algorithms like MAML, optimizes the model's ability to learn efficiently from a few examples by adjusting its parameters based on a meta-learner's feedback, bridging the gap between different tasks. Generative Methods Generative methods relate to data-level approaches that use synthetic data to augment the support and query sets in FSL. Data augmentation techniques, generative adversarial networks (GANs), and vision transformers (ViT) are standard methods that you can use to create fake data. This approach increases the quantity of data and introduces variability, challenging the model to learn more generalized representations. Cross-modal Few-shot Learning Cross-modal techniques use data from different modalities, such as text and audio, for FSL. For instance, you can combine text and image data to have a richer dataset instead of using images only. A straightforward method employed by recent research combines text and visual embeddings to compute richer prototypes for measuring similarity with the query image. This extends the traditional prototypical network, which only uses image embeddings for class prototypes. Few-shot learning approaches vary depending on the problem’s context. However, their distinction can be hazy, as you can combine one approach to develop a new FSL framework.  Categorizing FSL based on its types can be more helpful. So, let’s discuss FSL’s variations. Here is a table summary of the approaches, their primary objective, and instances where they are the best approach to implement Few-shot Learning Variations FSL encompasses a range of learning frameworks tailored to the scarcity of data, classified into n-shot, one-shot, and zero-shot learning. Each variation addresses unique challenges in machine learning with minimal examples. N-shot Learning: N-shot learning is a generalization of FSL models where ‘N’ refers to the number of training examples per class. For instance, training a model with only four samples per class is called 4-shot learning. This adaptable variation allows models to be tailored to the specific constraints and complexities of various tasks. N-shot learning shines in scenarios where acquiring a handful of examples is feasible, balancing learning efficiency and performance.  One-shot Learning: One-shot learning (OSL) occurs when only one sample exists per class in the training set. OSL algorithms are helpful in facial recognition applications where you only have a single training instance for each individual, and gathering multiple instances may be challenging. They use feature extraction and comparison to recognize patterns from a single instance and avoid overfitting. Zero-shot Learning: Zero-shot learning (ZSL) is an extreme variation of FSL, where the model classifies items with no direct training examples. The method involves training a model on seen classes and corresponding auxiliary information—detailed descriptions, labels, and definitions of each class. The model learns to use the auxiliary information to predict labels for the seen classes correctly. Once trained, we ask the model to classify unseen or new classes based on their auxiliary information during inference. This approach is particularly valuable in domains where the class spectrum is vast and continually expanding. Few-shot Learning Classification Algorithms Let’s now turn to the several classification algorithms based on the abovementioned approaches and variations. The following will briefly overview six mainstream FSL algorithms: model-agnostic meta-learning (MAML), matching, prototypical, relation, and memory-augmented neural networks. Model-agnostic Meta-learning (MAML) MAML is a parameter-level GBML approach that involves a two-step optimization process to prepare models for quick adaptation to new tasks. In the first step, we initialize a model and train it on multiple tasks. We use the errors generated from this step to compute adapted parameters through gradient descent. Next, we fine-tune the model, adjusting its parameters based on the errors, through stochastic gradient descent using a loss function. The result is a generic pre-trained parameter set that can quickly adapt to new tasks in a few training steps.  MAML - Model Agnostic Meta Learning Once we have the pre-trained parameter, we can adapt by re-training it under a few-shot setting. The pre-trained parameter theta will approach to the true parameter theta-star of a new task with only a few gradient steps, making the learning process efficient. Matching Networks Matching networks (MNs) are a metric-based meta-learning approach that uses convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to generate embeddings for both support and query images. Matching Network Architecture The model classifies the query image based on similarity with support set embeddings. The approach dynamically adjusts to new tasks using a contrastive loss function to backpropagate errors for optimizing a model for better task-specific performance. Prototypical Networks Prototypical networks (PNs) are a metric-based approach that computes an average for each class in the support set using the respective embeddings of the classes. The averages are called prototypes.  Prototypical Network The model compares the embeddings of a query (input) image x with the prototype c for class k and classifies the image based on a similarity score (their proximity to these prototypes). Cross-modal approaches also use prototypical networks to compute the prototypes for each class by combining its text and image embeddings. Relation Networks Relation networks (RNs) combine the methods of matching and prototypical networks. The framework computes prototypes for each class and concatenates the query image embeddings with the prototypes. Relation Network A relation module classifies the query image based on the similarity between the query embeddings and class prototypes. This method allows for a more nuanced assessment of class membership to interpret complex relations. Siamese Networks Siamese networks are also metric-based frameworks adept at one-shot learning. They are designed for comparison, using twin networks to process pairs of inputs and assess their similarity. Siamese Network It uses a contrastive loss function to fine-tune the model's sensitivity to subtle differences and similarities. Contrastive learning allows models to extract meaningful representations from unlabeled data. Learn how it works in our ‘Full Guide to Contrastive Learning’.  Memory-augmented Neural Networks Memory-augmented neural networks (MANNs) use memory modules to store data-related information such as vectors, entity relationships, and context. This enables the model to draw on this repository when encountering new tasks.  MANN Architecture The architecture consists of a controller, read-write heads, and a memory module. The read head fetches relevant information from memory when the controller receives a query. It provides it back to the controller for classification. Also, the write head stores new information in the memory module when the controller receives new data. Few-shot Object Detection Algorithm Like few-shot classification, we can also use few-shot approaches for object detection. The method involves a support set containing K class labels for each object within an image and N examples per class.  Annotating an N-class-label image using Encord Annotate More generally, a single image can contain more than one instance of the same object, and there can be multiple images. The situation can result in a class imbalance as the support set can contain more examples for a specific class and fewer for others. The two algorithms to solve these issues and classify objects with only a few examples are: YOLOMAML DeFRCN YOLOMAML YOLOMAML combines a variation of the YOLO algorithm with the MAML technique for few-shot object detection. The architecture consists of a customized version of YOLOv3 with Tine Darknet as the backbone and two additional output blocks.  The backbone is initialized with pre-trained parameters on the ImageNet dataset, and the layers are frozen, leaving only five convolutional layers to be trained. This speeds up the learning process on a standard GPU. YOLOMAML Algorithm Pseudocode Like the standard MAML, the algorithm samples several detection tasks from the support set. For each task, it updates the initial parameters based on the loss function defined over the query set. This results in updated parameters for each task. Finally, it updates the initial parameter set through stochastic gradient descent using the aggregate of loss functions defined over the updated parameters. Once we have the updated parameters, we can initialize the network with this new set of parameters and provide novel images for detection. The pre-trained parameters will quickly adapt to detect the relevant objects based on limited samples. DeFRCN Decoupled Fast Recurrent Network (DeFRCN) is a variant of the Fast-RCNN framework which consists of a region proposal network (RPN), recurrent neural network (RCNN), and two modules for box classification and regression. Together, the box classifier and regressor help detect relevant objects within an image. In traditional Fast-RCNN, the RPN proposes regions of interest (where to look), and the RCNN module predicts bounding boxes (what to look). However, the two modules share the same feature extractor (the backbone). This results in misalignment as the objectives of RPN and RCNN are fundamentally different. DeFRCN overcomes these limitations by introducing separate gradient decoupled layers (GDL) for RPN and RCNN to control the effect of each on the backbone’s update process. The network is trained on a large base dataset with multiple labeled samples. The architecture uses a Prototypical Calibration Network (PCN) for few-shot detection, which consists of a feature extractor to capture relevant features of novel classes in the support set.  DeFRCN PCN computes prototypes for each class and outputs a similarity score against the query image. The query image is also given to the box classifier, which generates its own classification score.  The network backpropagates the loss based on the two scores to optimize the backbone further. This way, the DeFRCN architecture jointly trains the model on base and novel datasets for optimal detection. Few Shot Learning: Use Cases Since FSL requires only a few labeled samples for training machine learning models, it has widespread uses in multiple industrial applications where data is limited. The list below mentions a few popular FSL use cases. Robotics: FSL models can help robots recognize novel objects in unknown environments without requiring extensive prior knowledge. Medical imaging: Due to insufficient labeled images for rare diseases, FSL models are valuable for medical diagnosis as they can detect new diseases and anomalies with minimal training data. Facial recognition: Facial recognition systems mostly use OSL models like the Siamese network to authenticate users. The models compare the input image with a reference photo and detect similarity. Autonomous vehicles: CV models for autonomous vehicles require FSL object detection models to recognize new objects on the road for efficient navigation. Quality assurance: FSL frameworks can help detect new product anomalies and defects on the assembly line. Gesture and emotion recognition: Classifying gestures and emotions in real-time is challenging since training a model using traditional methods will require data on all kinds of emotional and physical cues. Instead, training FSL models on a few relevant images is optimal, as they can recognize anomalous behavior using minimal labeled samples. Video Scene Classification: FSL approaches can analyze and classify novel video scenes using the knowledge gained from a few training samples. Want to know the latest computer vision use cases? Learn more about the ten most exciting applications of computer vision in 2024   Few-shot Learning: Key Takeaways With FSL overtaking the traditional learning paradigms in computer vision, the approaches, algorithms, and frameworks will likely grow exponentially in the coming years. Below are a few key points to remember regarding FSL: Significance of FSL: FSL is crucial in the modern AI ecosystem. It can help you build models with minimal training data, making it suitable for applications where data is limited. Few-shot classification approaches: The primary FSL approaches for image classification include data-level, parameter-level, metric-based, gradient-based meta-learning, generative, and cross-modal methods. Few-shot object detection: Few-shot object detection is an emerging field where we aim to detect multiple objects within a single image using FSL approaches. YOLOMAML is the only mainstream algorithm to address this problem.

GPT-4 Vision by OpenAI integrates computer vision and language understanding to process text and visual inputs. This multimodal approach enhances the model's interpretation and response to complex inputs, proving effective in tasks like Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Visual Question Answering (VQA), and Object Detection.  However, despite GPT-4 Vision's impressive capabilities, its limitations and closed-source nature have spurred interest in open-source alternatives. These alternatives, known for their flexibility and adaptability, are pivotal for a diverse technological ecosystem. They allow for broader application and customization, especially in fields requiring specific functionalities like OCR, VQA, and Object Detection.  This article explores: Four (4) open-source GPT-4V alternatives Features of the GPT-4V alternatives The potential applications and limitations Thorough comparison of performance across different attributes Let’s jump right in! 🔥 NEW RELEASE: We released TTI-Eval (text-to-image evaluation), an open-source library for evaluating zero-shot classification models like CLIP and domain-specific ones like BioCLIP against your (or HF) datasets to estimate how well the model will perform. Get started with it on GitHub, and do ⭐️ the repo if it's awesome. 🔥 GPT-4 Vision The model supports various image formats, including PNG, JPEG, WEBP, and non-animated GIF files. Users can provide images in base64 encoded format to the GPT-4 Vision API for analysis. This flexibility makes GPT-4 Vision versatile in handling various visual inputs.​​​​​ Key Capabilities Data analysis: GPT-4 Vision excels in analyzing data visualizations, interpreting the patterns underlying the data, and providing key insights based on the interpretation. However, accuracy may vary depending on the complexity of the data and the context provided. Creative applications: By combining GPT-4 Vision with DALL-E-3, users can create image prompts, generate visuals, and craft accompanying text, opening up new avenues for creative expression. Web development: GPT-4 Vision can convert visual designs into website source code. It can generate the corresponding HTML and CSS code by providing a visual image of the desired website layout, significantly reducing development time​.  Accessibility enhancement: The model has been tailored for applications like the "Be My Eyes" app, helping to make digital content more accessible to visually impaired users. By analyzing images and providing explanations, GPT-4 Vision improves the accessibility of visual information.​ Potential Applications Educational and Academic Applications: It can transcribe and analyze mathematical concepts and handwritten content for students, researchers, and academics​. Image Data Analysis for Geographical Exploration: It can analyze satellite photos and determine their geographical source for exploring different places in geography and travel​. Interior Design and Architecture: GPT-4V can offer suggestions for room improvements based on an input image. Object Identification: The model can identify objects such as cables or medicines and explain relevant details that are beneficial for everyday use and shopping​ GPT4-Vision Chat Example Limitations GPT-4 Vision, while offering a range of capabilities, also comes with certain limitations that users should be aware of: Data Analysis Limitations: GPT-4 Vision's ability to analyze data visualizations and interpret patterns is not infallible. The model's accuracy in providing insights can vary with the complexity of the data and the context given. This means that the interpretations might only sometimes be accurate or comprehensive for highly complex or nuanced data. Creative Applications: While GPT-4 Vision, combined with DALL-E-3, opens creative avenues, the quality and relevance of generated visuals and text can vary. The interpretations and creations are based on the model's training data, which might only encompass some artistic styles or cultural contexts. Web Development: Though GPT-4 Vision can convert visual designs into website code, the generated HTML and CSS might only sometimes align with best coding practices or advanced web functionalities. It is a starting point but may require manual refinement for complex web projects. Cost: GPT-4 Vision can be cost-intensive, particularly for high-volume tokens. Costs can escalate quickly with increased API calls, which can be a limiting factor for small businesses or individuals. Data Privacy Concerns: GPT-4 Vision raises privacy concerns, especially in sensitive or personal data applications. Users must know how their data is stored, processed, and potentially shared, adhering to data protection regulations like GDPR.  When choosing alternatives to GPT-4 Vision, consider their accuracy in interpreting visual data and their ability to handle specialized, domain-specific tasks. Also, assess their integration capabilities and scalability to ensure they align with your project's needs and resources. Alternatives to GPT-4 Vision Open source alternatives to GPT-4 Vision perform well on multimodal tasks like OCR, VQA, and object detection that you can fine-tune to your specific needs and applications. We will discuss the four popular alternatives: LLaVa 1.5 Qwen-VL CogVLM BakLLaVa LLaVA 1.5 Research Paper | Github Repo | Model | Demo LLaVA 1.5 is a novel end-to-end trained large multimodal model that combines a vision encoder and Vicuna for general-purpose visual and language understanding with state-of-the-art accuracy on Science QA. Overview of Features LLaVA 1.5, building upon its predecessor LLaVA, includes several enhancements: It integrates a CLIP-ViT-L-336px with a Multi-Layer Perceptron projection, adding academic-task-oriented VQA data. Simple modifications to the model architecture have led to state-of-the-art performance across 11 benchmarks using a relatively modest amount of public data (1.2 million data points)​. The model is designed for general-purpose visual and language understanding. LLaVA 1.5's simpler architecture requires significantly less training data than models like Qwen-VL and HuggingFace IDEFICS. This efficiency and its open-source nature, hosted on GitHub and HuggingFace, make LLaVA 1.5 accessible.​ UPDATE: The researchers released LLaVA-NeXT with improved reasoning, OCR capabilities, and worldview over LLaVA-1.5. Along with the performance improvements, LLaVA-NeXT maintains the minimalist design and data efficiency of LLaVA-1.5. It re-uses the pre-trained connector of LLaVA-1.5 and still uses less than 1M visual instruction tuning samples. The largest 34B variant finishes training in ~1 day with 32 A100s. Learn more about these improvements on this page. At Encord, we released an LLaVA-powered classification feature to automatically label your image based on nothing more than natural language comprehension of your labeling ontology. Give the tool an image and an arbitrarily complex ontology, and let it auto-label for you! Use LLaVA to annotate your images within Encord automatically. See how to get started in this blog post. Capabilities in Zero-Shot Object Detection Testing has shown that LLaVA 1.5 can detect objects and provide their coordinates in images. This highlights its efficacy in visual comprehension and object detection tasks.​ Limitations and Training Efficiency Front-end code writing: While LLaVA 1.5 excels in many areas, it has limitations. For example, it needs to improve writing front-end code according to design, with relatively crude outputs.  Language translation: Additionally, it struggles with translation tasks, indicating limitations in language translation tasks.  Q/A example on Llava 1.5 Qwen-VL Research Paper | Github Repo | Model | Demo This model is based on the Qwen-LM, enhanced with a visual receptor, an input-output interface, a 3-stage training pipeline, and a multilingual multimodal corpus.  The primary function of Qwen-VL is to align image-caption-box tuples, facilitating capabilities beyond conventional image description and question-answering​. Overview of Features: Qwen-VL Qwen-VL, an advancement in Large Vision Language Models (LVLMs), showcases its strength in two key areas - multilingual support and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Here are its notable features: Robust Multilingual Support: Qwen-VL excels in multilingual capabilities, particularly supporting English and Chinese. Its ability to perform end-to-end recognition of bilingual text in images is a significant feature. This functionality makes Qwen-VL highly adaptable for various international contexts, catering to a broader range of linguistic needs. Enhanced Optical Character Recognition: The model demonstrates strong performance in OCR and can fine-grained text recognition and understanding. This proficiency in OCR marks a notable improvement over other open-source LVLMs. Compared to its competitors' typical 224x224 resolution, Qwen-VL uses a higher resolution of 448x448. This increased resolution contributes to its enhanced capability in text recognition and document quality assurance. Strengths in Multilingual Support and OCR One of the standout features of Qwen-VL is its robust multilingual support in English and Chinese. This model facilitates end-to-end recognition of bilingual text (Chinese and English) in images, making it highly versatile in several international contexts. Additionally, it exhibits strong performance in Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and can fine-grained text recognition and understanding. This is a step up from other open-sourced LVLMs, which typically use a 224x224 resolution, as Qwen-VL employs a 448x448 resolution for improved text recognition and document QA.​ Qualitative samples produced by Qwen-VL Chat Use Cases and Potential Applications Qwen-VL's versatility allows for applications like multi-image storytelling and spatial visual understanding. Its bilingual grounding ability and high-resolution OCR make it ideal for tasks requiring detailed text and image analysis. Additionally, Qwen-VL sets new standards in image captioning, question answering, and visual grounding, outperforming existing models in real-world dialog and vision-language tasks. The Qwen-VL-Chat variant, an instruction-tuned multimodal LLM-based AI assistant, also demonstrates superiority in real-world dialog benchmarks compared to existing vision-language chatbots​. CogVLM: Cognitive Visual Language Model Research Paper | Github Repo | Model | Demo CogVLM stands out as an innovative open-source visual language model, notable for its integration of diverse components and capabilities: CogVLM incorporates a Vision Transformer (ViT) Encoder designed to process image data, ensuring high-quality visual understanding. Adding a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) Adapter enhances its capability to handle complex data transformations. Integration with a pre-trained Large Language Model (GPT) for text data, enabling sophisticated language processing. Including a Visual Expert Module contributes to its advanced visual and textual data interpretation, making the model highly versatile across various tasks. Overview of Features and Improvements: CogVLM (Cognitive Visual Language Model) Visual Grounding and Image Description: The model excels in visual grounding, connecting textual descriptions with specific image regions. This skill is vital for tasks that require an in-depth understanding of the relationship between visual elements and textual information. Demonstrating state-of-the-art performance in picture captioning across several benchmarks, such as NoCaps and Flicker30k, CogVLM showcases its exceptional ability in image captioning. It can describe images with accuracy and contextual relevance, reinforcing its powerful text-image synthesis capabilities. Chat examples by the CogVLM chat interface Applications in Various Contexts Medical Imaging: CogVLM's detailed analysis and high accuracy make it ideal for medical imaging applications, where precise interpretation is critical. Security Surveillance: In security contexts, the model's ability to analyze and interpret text and image data can enhance surveillance capabilities. Internet Searches: Its proficiency in handling complex queries involving images and text makes it a valuable tool for enhancing search engine functionalities. Educational Materials: CogVLM can contribute significantly to developing educational resources, especially those integrating visual and textual content for a more comprehensive learning experience. Open-Source Accessibility: Being open-source, CogVLM is accessible to a broad range of users, including researchers, developers, and AI enthusiasts, fostering a collaborative environment for innovation in AI. Promoting Innovation and Growth: The model's open-source nature encourages innovation and growth in AI, allowing for continuous development and improvement. BakLLaVA Research Paper | Github Repo| Model | Demo BakLLaVA is a multimodal model (LMM) developed collaboratively by LAION, Ontocord, and Skunkworks AI. Its design incorporates a Mistral 7B base, augmented with the LLaVA 1.5 architecture. This combination aims to leverage the strengths of both components, offering an advanced solution for multimodal AI tasks.  Overview of Features and Improvements: BakLLaVA Adaptability and Accessibility: Designed to run efficiently on laptops, BakLLaVA ensures accessibility to a broader range of users, provided they have adequate GPU resources. This feature makes it an attractive option for individual researchers, developers, and AI hobbyists needing access to high-end computing infrastructure. Enhanced Functionalities with Auxiliary Tools: BakLLaVA's functionality can be further expanded using tools like llama.cpp. This tool facilitates running the LLaMA model in C++, broadening BakLLaVA's scope and enhancing its applications in various AI-driven tasks. Chat example on BakLLaVA's Efficiency and Resource Management BakLLaVA's design emphasizes resource efficiency. Integrates Mistral 7B with LLaVA 1.5 for high performance with lower computational demand. Suitable for applications with limited GPU resources; operable on laptops. Appeals to a wider user and developer base due to its less resource-intensive nature. Limitations and Fine-Tuning BakLLaVA faces challenges in writing refined front-end code. Achieves top results on benchmarks but requires fine-tuning for optimal performance. Necessity for customization to specific tasks or datasets. Less effective in language translation tasks. How Do These Alternatives Compare with GPT-4 Vision The Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) landscape is advancing with different alternatives to GPT-4 Vision, each exhibiting distinct strengths and weaknesses. Here's a detailed analysis and comparison: Performance Benchmarks Model comparison - Performance benchmark Learn the evolution of visual instruction tuning and explore the specifics of LLaVA, along with its more recent iteration, LLaVA-1.5, in this blog.   Open Source vs Proprietary Models Open-source models like Qwen-VL, CogVLM, LLaVA, and BakLLaVA offer customization and flexibility, ideal for environments with specific needs or limitations. Proprietary models like GPT-4 Vision provide consistent updates and support but less deployment control and potential data privacy concerns. Performance Comparison: GPT-4 Vision Vs. AI Models The heatmap compares AI models against GPT-4 Vision across various attributes like OCR capabilities, object detection, etc. Each cell color intensity reflects the performance level (e.g., Strong, Moderate) for a specific attribute of a model. Darker shades indicate robust capabilities, facilitating an at-a-glance understanding of each model's strengths and weaknesses. Reliability comparison between open source alternatives and GPT-4V When comparing GPT-4 Vision with other AI models like Qwen-VL, CogVLM, LLaVA, and BakLLaVA, it's essential to consider their practical applications and limitations in various contexts. Qwen-VL, developed by Alibaba Cloud, excels in handling images, text, and bounding boxes as inputs and can output text and bounding boxes. It supports English, Chinese, and multilingual conversation, making it useful in scenarios where Chinese and English are used. Qwen-VL has successfully documented OCR, such as extracting text from web page screenshots and identifying serial numbers on objects like tires. This capability makes it a strong candidate for applications that require precise text extraction from images.​ ​ CogVLM is known for its ability to understand and answer a wide range of questions and has a version focused on visual grounding. This model can accurately describe images with minimal errors and is helpful for zero-shot object detection, as it returns coordinates of grounded objects. CogVLM can interpret infographics and documents with structured information, making it suitable for detailed image analysis and interpretation applications.​ ​ LLaVA is widely recognized as a reliable alternative to GPT-4 Vision in Visual Question Answering (VQA). While it has some capabilities in zero-shot object detection and OCR, it may need help with more complex scenarios, such as interpreting multiple coins in an image or accurately recognizing text from web page screenshots. LLaVA's strengths lie in its ability to process and analyze images for VQA, but it may need to improve for tasks requiring high precision in text recognition.​ ​​ BakLLaVA, leveraging a Mistral 7B base with the LLaVA 1.5 architecture, offers a faster and less resource-intensive alternative to GPT-4 Vision. However, it requires more fine-tuning to achieve accurate results. BakLLaVA's strengths include its ability to detect objects and its versatility due to being less resource-intensive. However, it may only sometimes produce reliable results with substantial fine-tuning.​ Accuracy comparison between open source alternatives and GPT-4V Criteria for Choosing the Most Suitable Model For multilingual support, especially in Chinese and English, Qwen-VL is a strong option. For detailed image descriptions and zero-shot object detection, CogVLM is suitable. For applications requiring VQA with moderate complexity, LLaVA can be effective. For less resource-intensive tasks with the flexibility for fine-tuning, BakLLaVA is a viable choice. For diverse applications, including assistance for visually impaired users, GPT-4 Vision stands out, though its accuracy and limitations should be considered. Future Outlook The choice of multimodal AI model should be based on the specific requirements of the task, such as language support, the need for text extraction accuracy, and the level of detail required in image analysis. In the context of multimodal models, open-source contributions shape AI's future significantly. These models, which integrate multiple data types such as text, images, and audio, are poised to offer a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of human cognition. 🔥 NEW RELEASE: We released TTI-Eval (text-to-image evaluation), an open-source library for evaluating zero-shot classification models like CLIP and domain-specific ones like BioCLIP against your (or HF) datasets to estimate how well the model will perform. Get started with it on GitHub, and do ⭐️ the repo if it's awesome. 🔥 GPT-4 Vision Alternatives: Key Takeaways The significance of open-source large multimodal models (LMMs) is highly valuable. These models process diverse data types, including visual and natural language inputs, enhancing AI  accuracy and comprehension. Their open-source nature not only enables accessibility and innovation but also promises a more human-like understanding of complex queries. Adding visual encoders, transformers, and the ability to follow instructions to models like GPT-4 Vision (GPT-4V) and its alternatives shows how multimodal AI could change fields like computer vision and machine learning. As research in AI continues to incorporate ethical considerations and leverage platforms like Hugging Face for open-source collaborations, the future of Large Multimodal Models (LMMs), including models outperforming existing benchmarks, looks promising.

Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) viewers are a global phenomenon as medical experts increasingly rely on these image-viewing solutions to analyze complex sequences such as CT scans, X-rays, MRIs, etc.  DICOM viewers commonly integrate with the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) to store, manage, share, and retrieve medical images. With PACS, DICOM viewers allow healthcare professionals to easily manipulate complex medical data for better diagnosis and patient care. Due to their increasing popularity, the projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the Global Medical Imaging and Radiology software market stands at 7.8% from 2023 to 2030. This article discusses the top players in the market to help you find the best DICOM viewer for the job. How to Choose a DICOM Viewer? DICOM is an international standard introduced in 1993 that defines the format for storing and exchanging medical images. Using artificial intelligence (AI) in medical imaging to diagnose diseases is becoming the norm. This has led to many DICOM solutions with sophisticated annotation features and user interface (UI) enhancements entering the market. As such, the modern medical ecosystem needs a DICOM viewer to handle complex clinical trials requiring detailed analysis and collaboration among medical professionals. However, choosing an appropriate viewer is challenging due to the number of DICOM tools available. So, the list below narrows down the factors you should consider when purchasing a DICOM solution. Compatibility with Operating Systems: You should opt for a DICOM viewer compatible with your desired operating system. However, getting a viewer that works with Mac OS, Linux, and Windows is more practical, as solutions that work on a single platform can reduce collaboration efficiency across team members with different operating systems (or development environments). Ease of Setup: A DICOM viewer with a straightforward installation can be a significant time-saver. Consider a tool that could help your team get started quickly without additional configurations or dependencies. Patient Data Anonymization: With strict patient data regulations, a viewer must provide features allowing users to abstract sensitive information (PII) quickly to prevent data violations.  Intuitive User Interface (UI): An easy-to-use UI simplifies a doctor’s job. Look for features that allow quick navigation and analysis of medical images, such as clear markers, scrolling capabilities, adjustable brightness, multiplanar reconstruction (MPR), and Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP). Select a DICOM viewer with your desired UI specifications for a better user experience. Reporting: A DICOM viewer capable of handling image fusion can facilitate more comprehensive and detailed reporting, allowing healthcare professionals to annotate and report findings directly on the fused images. Image fusion technology allows the combination of images from different imaging modalities, such as Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Computed Tomography (CT), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). PACS Integration: Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) is the foundational software that helps with information exchange and storage between different medical devices. PACS can be local or cloud-based with improved accessibility. A DICOM viewer that can integrate quickly with a cloud-based PACS is a more appropriate option. Data Security Assurance and Compliance Certifications: The importance of privacy and security certifications like SOC2 cannot be overstated. It ensures that the solution maintains the highest data protection standards, vital in the healthcare sector. Cost-Effectiveness: Invest in a solution that balances price with the desired features at a reasonable cost for a faster return on investment (ROI). Want to know what features to look for in a DICOM annotation tool? Read our article on the Top 7 features to look for in a DICOM Annotation Tool.   Top 15 DICOM Viewers for Medical Images As evident from the previous section, there are many factors to consider when investing in a DICOM viewer. This can be overwhelming, as choosing a suitable viewer becomes tedious. So, the following lists the best DICOM viewers selected based on functionality, ease of use, and cost to simplify your search. Encord DICOM Label Editor 3DimViewer PostDICOM RadiAnt Horos 3D Slicer Mango Escape EMV Ginkgo CADx DICOM Web Viewer Miele LXIV Philips DICOM Viewer Weasis MiViewer Yakami DICOM  Encord DICOM Label Editor Encord is an end-to-end data and AI platform with advanced features for classifying and annotating medical images to build AI models. It provides native support for Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) browser rendering and data annotations. Encord DICOM Annotation Tool Features Compatibility with Operating Systems: Encord Annotate provides native support for DICOM within a web app compatible with all operating systems Ease of Setup: Setting up Encord is an easy 4-step process. Patient Data Anonymization: The de-identification function lets you protect sensitive patient data. Intuitive User Interface (UI): It has a user-friendly interface to render 20,000-pixel intensities, set custom window widths & levels, and natively display DICOM metadata. Reporting and PACS Integration: With Encord’s DICOM editor, you can annotate modalities from your Mammography, CT, X-ray, and MRI PACS viewer. Data Security Assurance and Compliance Certifications: The platform is SOC2 compliant and conforms to FDA regulations. Key Benefits Annotation Type: Label using any annotation type in 2D (with 3D in the works) and seamlessly toggle between axial, coronal, and sagittal views. Encord also supports several annotation techniques, such as polygons, hanging protocols, segmentation, etc. Full-range intensity values: Encord’s DICOM viewer natively renders files in the browser, supporting displays of up to 20,000 pixels. 2D Multiplanar Reconstruction (MPR): Encord lets you reconstruct images in 2D orthogonal planes through its MPR display for efficient annotation and visualization. Best for Healthcare professionals who want an end-to-end AI-based imaging tool. Pricing Encord has a simple pay-per-user pricing system. Learn more about the DICOM & NIfTI Annotation features Learn how to improve Machine Learning experiments with medical images by reading our Guide to Experiments for Medical Imaging in Machine Learning.   3DimViewer 3DimViewer is an open-sourceDICOM viewing multi-platform software that supports MicrosoftWindows, Mac OS X, and Linux. 3DIMViewer Features 3DimViewer is compatible with Linux, Mac OS, and Windows Installation involves downloading the application from the website. It features data anonymization. 3Dim’s user interface is a bit difficult to understand. Key Benefits 3DimViewer provides three-dimensional (3D) visualizations for DICOM images. Features volume rendering through shaders running on NVIDIA and AMD graphic cards. It offers adjustable-density windows to change brightness and contrast for viewing particular areas in medical scans more clearly. Best for Teams looking for a budget-friendly, lightweight, and versatile DICOM viewer. Pricing 3DIMViewer is a free DICOM viewer. PostDICOM PostDICOM is a cloud-based PACS with an integrated DICOM viewer that lets you view, save, and share DICOM files using PostDICOM’s cloud servers. PostDICOM Features PostDICOM is compatible with Linux, Windows, and Mac OS. PostDICOM can be a bit challenging to set up. It has a data anonymization feature. PostDICOM has a user-friendly interface. The solution is integratable with PACS. Key Benefits PostDICOM features an online DICOM viewer with advanced visualizations like MPR, MIP, and 3D rendering. It lets you view DICOM image files on any device. It helps you share data using a single link and password. Best for Teams that are looking for an end-to-end storage and viewing solution for large DICOM datasets. Pricing PostDICOM offers a Lite, Pro, and Advanced version. RadiAnt RadiAnt is a Windows-only local PACSDICOM viewer that supports dynamic sequences and monochromatic, color, and static images. RadiAnt User Interface Features RadiAnt is only compatible with Windows. Installation and setup require downloading the application and installing using the installing wizard. The user interface can be difficult to understand. It integrates with PACS. Key Benefits The RadiAnt Dicom Viewer features multiple user-friendly tools like fluid zooming and panning, a pen for freehand drawing, preset window settings, etc. It supports PET-CT image fusion and fusion with other modalities. It has multi-touch support for touch-enabled devices. Best for Teams that want a DICOM viewer with an intuitive UI for studying complex images for research purposes. Pricing RadiAnt has a subscription-based pricing mechanism. Horos Horos is an open-source DICOM viewer based on OsiriX, an image-processing library for the Apple Mac OS. Horos Features Horos is only compatible with Mac OS. The solution requires a 5-step setup procedure It integrates with PACS Key Benefits Horos lets you share studies with multiple recipients from within the platform. It integrates with the cloud for efficient storage and file transfer. Best for Teams that want a Mac-OS compatible viewer that can handle large image data. Pricing The tool is free to use. 3D Slicer 3D Slicer is an open-source DICOM software that lets you visualize, process, segment, and analyze 3D medical images. It also supports virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR). 3DSlicer Features 3D Slicer is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Installation is a bit challenging. It features data anonymization. The user interface is a bit complex. It supports PACS. Key Benefits 3D Slicer supports 2D, 3D, and 4D (VR/AR Supported) DICOM objects. It features over 150 plugins and extensions. The viewer is compatible with the latest AR/VR devices, like Oculus and HoloLens. Best for Medical scientists who want a real-time tool for navigating surgical workflows.  Pricing The tool is open-source. Mango Multi-image Analysis GUI (Mango) is a lightweight open-source DICOM solution compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux and offers plugins for Java and Python development. Mango Features Mango is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. The user interface is complex. Key Benefits Mango supports multiple image formats, including DICOM, MINC, and NIFTI. It offers customizations for file formats, atlases, color tables, etc. It supports cut planes and overlays for interactive surface modeling. Best for Doctors who want to view and analyze DICOM and other image formats on the go. Pricing The software is free to use. Escape EMV Escape EMV is a Windows-based DICOM viewer with multilingual functionality and integrates with PACS servers to exchange DICOM files. Escape EMV Features Escape EMV is compatible with Windows and MacOS. The user interface is complex. Supports PACS. Key Benefits Escape EMV features a multilingual interface supporting English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. It has a full-screen viewing mode. It lets you query servers to fetch your desired files quickly. Best for Teams that need a tool for collaborating across borders.   Pricing Pricing is based on usage. Ginkgo CADx Ginkgo CADx is a multi-platform DICOM image viewer that can convert standard image files into the DICOM format. Ginkgo CADx Features Ginkgo CADx is compatible with Windows, Linux, and MacOSX. It has an easy-to-use interface Key Benefits Ginkgo CADx can convert PNG, JPEG, BMP, and TIFF formats to DICOM. It is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It supports Kitware’s Insight Segmentation and Registration Toolkit. Best for Healthcare professionals who frequently work with multiple image formats and want an easy-to-use DICOM viewer and converter. Pricing The tool is open-source. DICOM Web Viewer DICOM Web Viewer is a free online DICOM viewer based on Javascript and HTML 5, making it compatible with any platform that supports a modern browser. DICOM Web Viewer Features DICOM Web Viewer is compatible with all operating systems. It is easy to set up. Key Benefits DICOM Web Viewer can load data from local and remote servers. It has features like drag, contrast, and zoom to manipulate DICOM images. Best for Professionals who need a versatile viewer with basic functionality. Pricing The solution is free to use. Miele-LXIV Miele-LXIV is a 64-bit DICOM viewing application for Mac OS, compatible with versions 10.14 to 14.2. Miele-LXIV Features Miele-LXIV is only compatible with MAC OS Key Benefits Miele-LXIV supports MacOS Mojave’s Dark Mode. It supports seven languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. Its universal binary makes it run on Intel and Apple silicon processors efficiently. Best for Health professionals who work primarily on Mac OS to view DICOM images. Pricing It has a fixed price. Philips DICOM Viewer The Philips DICOM Viewer is a basic read-only application, which means you cannot save changes to an image. It only lets you export and view DICOM files. Philips DICOM Viewer Features The software is only compatible with Windows. Key Benefits The software features a series selector and viewer. It supports multiple image viewing types simultaneously for multimodal studies. Best for Physicians and technicians who want a tool for quickly viewing and printing DICOM images. Pricing Pricing is not publicly disclosed Weasis Weasis is a web-based DICOM solution with a modular architecture and integrations with PACS, Hospital Information Systems (HIS), Patient Health Records (PHR), and Radiology Information Systems (RIS). Weasis Features Weasis is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Installation requires direct download from the website. Supports data anonymization. It has a user-friendly interface. It integrates with PACS. Key Benefits Weasis lets you view multiple DICOM types, including MPEG-2, ECG, RT, etc. It offers several layouts to compare studies. It features tools for measuring and annotating images. Best for Healthcare practitioners who want an advanced solution for analyzing multiple clinical trials cheaply. Pricing Weasis is free to use. MiViewer MILLENSYS Dicom Viewer (MiViewer) is a general-purpose DICOM tool requiring no installation, making it easier to operate and view multimodality images. MiViewer Features MiViewer is easy to set up User interface is challenging to operate. Key Benefits The software lets you view cine loops with playback controls, special filters, and multi-frame images. It offers several tools to manipulate images, such as multi-format display, windowing, annotation, etc. It lets you export DICOM images as compressed JPEG files. Best for Practitioners who are new to the medical profession and want easy-to-use software. Pricing It is not publicly disclosed Yakami DICOM Yakami DICOM is a collection of free applications, such as a DICOM viewer, converter, table maker, PACS client, file mover, etc., to manage DICOM data. It is compatible with Windows versions 2000 to 10. Yakami DICOM Features Yakami is only compatible with Windows. It is difficult to set up as you have to configure multiple applications. Supports data anonymization. The user interface is challenging to operate. The software comes with a PACS client. Key Benefits The platform lets you magnify images by 1600% and supports window level and width adjustments for better clarity. The DICOM viewer supports multiple image formats, including JPEG, PNG, TIFF, W3C, etc. The Table Maker package automatically creates tables by reading headers in DICOM files. Best for Researchers who want free DICOM management tools to conduct independent studies. Pricing Yakami DICOM is free to use. DICOM Viewers for Medical Images: Key Takeaways After exploring various DICOM viewers, it's evident that there's a range of options with diverse functionalities for viewing, storing, and sharing medical images. Here are some essential takeaways to guide your choice: Functionality vs. Cost: While open-source DICOM viewers are an attractive option due to their low cost, paid solutions often offer enhanced customer support, regular software updates, and ongoing development to meet evolving medical imaging needs. However, some open-source tools also provide substantial functionality and active community support. Advanced visualization features: Essential features for a DICOM viewer include custom window presets for different imaging modalities, Multiplanar Reconstruction (MPR), Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP), and efficient tools for zooming, panning, marking, and annotating images. These capabilities are crucial for detailed medical image analysis. Support for PACS: DICOM viewer integration with Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) is vital in today's interconnected medical landscape. Such integration facilitates streamlined storage and exchange of extensive DICOM datasets, enhancing overall workflow efficiency and data management. In conclusion, when choosing a DICOM viewer, balance the considerations of cost and functionality with your specific needs for visualization features and system integration to find the most suitable solution for your medical imaging requirements.

Ford, along with other manufacturing giants, has embraced the next wave of technological evolution—artificial intelligence. They accelerated assembly processes by 15% just by implementing AI and computer vision-enabled robots. Today, computer vision is a cornerstone in modern manufacturing, automating lengthy, repetitive, and potentially hazardous tasks, thereby allowing humans to focus on more complex and meaningful work. This article explores the diverse applications of computer vision across various manufacturing industries, detailing their benefits and challenges. Computer Vision Applications in Manufacturing Computer vision has various applications in the manufacturing industry. The entire manufacturing lifecycle benefits from CV-powered automation and analysis, from product design to logistics and dismantling operations. Let’s discuss some of the use cases of AI in the manufacturing industry below Product Design and Prototyping 3D design tools like Computer-Aided Design (CAD) are integrating with computer vision models like CLIP-Forge, JoinABLe, and Point2Cyl to make it easier for designers to generate object designs and prototype assemblies. For example:  Automobile design Hyundai's New Horizons Studio has designed Elevate using CAD integrated with computer vision models for easier prototyping. Elevate is a car with legs for versatile terrain navigation. It's ideal for rescue teams to reach compromised areas with its enhanced lightweight durability. It can also assist people with mobility challenges.  Hyundai's Elevate Project Toys design and prototype The award-winning toy, Magic Mixies by Moose Toys, was designed and prototyped using Fusion 360, incorporating generative design services. Leveraging Fusion 360, the team swiftly transformed the concept into a functional prototype within 3-4 months. Design and manufacturing for the initial Magic Mixies were accomplished and made available in 18 months. Footwear and apparel design Footwear company New Balance has used Gravity Sketch – a 3D design and prototype platform that uses Augmented Reality (AR) to help designers express their ideas in a 3D environment, improve the communication of their design workflow, and quickly reflect on what’s not working.  Industrial design FARO RevEng Software offers a robust digital design experience, allowing users to create and edit meshes and CAD surfaces from a set of points in a 3D coordinate system. This aids industrial designers in reverse-engineering workflows (generating missing CAD files from legacy or prototype parts) and provides mesh models for additional design or 3D printing. Product Manufacturing Computer vision offers numerous applications in product manufacturing workflows. These include: Automotive engineering Ford is one of the leading manufacturers to use Virtual Reality (VR) for collaborative designing. Similarly, innovations in electrical distribution software are pushing boundaries in energy management, streamlining operations for a sustainable future. They use Microsoft HoloLens to enable designers and engineers to work together on car designs seamlessly. In another application, General Electric (GE) scientists are integrating computer vision into 3D printers, enabling machines to inspect large automotive parts as they are built, eliminating the need for time-consuming post-production inspections. Agricultural efficiency Singapore-based Singrow provides solutions involving AI-powered robots to guarantee premium-quality vegetables and fruits. The robot is programmed to recognize, identify, and select flowers and ripe strawberries, enhancing pollination efficiency. Singrow's indoor farms are 40% more energy efficient than a conventional strawberry farm and produce a 20% higher yield. Another product, See & Spray by Blue River, uses deep learning and machine vision to distinguish between crops and weeds and then spray chemicals only on the weeds. As a result, Blue River reduces herbicide use by up to 80 percent. 🍇👀 Want to know how Encord helped Four Growers provide healthy and affordable fruit and vegetable harvesting? Read our customer story on Transforming Fruit and Vegetable Harvesting & Analytics with Computer Vision. Textile production Tianyuan Garments is disrupting traditional apparel manufacturing by introducing its latest workforce—sewbots. This technology uses tiny cameras to map soft fabric while robots pass material through sewing machines. Tianyuan Garments aims for a fully operational production process, creating one T-shirt every 22 seconds, with plans to manufacture 800,000 T-shirts daily while cutting operational costs by 33% per T-shirt. Steel industry Cobots—robots that operate with humans to perform repetitive and complex tasks—enable steel manufacturers to perform welding operations. In 2022, Universal Robots (UR) reportedly grew its welding channel application by more than 80%. A steel manufacturer, Raymath, uses four UR robot welders, resulting in 4x productivity.  Moreover, ensuring comprehensive material tracking in production requires the verification of ID codes, serial numbers, or part numbers on steel bars and other products. SLR Engineering has innovatively implemented an OCR system capable of reliably identifying codes on the surfaces of steel bars used in tube production with an accuracy of over 99.90%.  Production Line Production lines in manufacturing have evolved significantly from the pre-industrial period to Industry 4.0. CV-based automation, collaborative robots (cobots), fast installation, and easy programmability have improved the production outcome. Let’s look at some of the key applications of computer vision in production lines: Inspecting defects Foxconn Technology Group, a global leader in smart manufacturing, has introduced FOXCONN NxVAE, which ensures efficiency and accuracy in inspecting defects using CV. It can detect the 13 most common defects in manufacturing production lines without errors. Another example is Volvo's Atlas computer vision system that scans vehicles with 20+ cameras, spotting defects 40% more than manual inspections, taking 5-20 seconds per cycle. The Automated Production Line Applied for FOXCONN NxVAE Compressor assembly Opel, a German automobile manufacturer, uses a UR10 cobot to screw aircon compressors onto engine blocks. It was an ergonomically challenging task for the employees, now handled by a cobot in the production lines. Automated production Lion Electric manufactures batteries for electric vehicles. With soaring demand for Lion Electric's products, they have integrated FANUC robots and other automation equipment into their production facility. The team scaled up the system using computer vision to deliver a fully automated solution. This smart system lets Lion smoothly ramp up production while keeping operational costs in check. Operational Safety and Security In 2020, 4,764 US workers died on the job. Nearly half of these fatalities occurred in two potentially hazardous occupations: Transportation and material moving occupations (1,282 deaths) Construction and extraction occupations (976 deaths) Computer vision enables manufacturers to improve worker safety and security by monitoring high-risk areas, identifying unsafe behaviors, and improving emergency response.  Here are some key areas where computer vision is improving operational safety in manufacturing: Posture detection TuMeke has created a CV-powered ergonomic risk assessment platform. Users record smartphone videos of various warehouse activities, such as lifting boxes. The platform then generates a risk summary identifying unsafe postures. Learn how Teton AI uses computer vision to design fall-prevention tools for hospital healthcare workers in this customer story. Fatigue detection To detect signs of fatigue during long-haul truck driving and increase driver safety, Cipia provides CV-based driver monitoring, occupancy monitoring, and sensing solutions like:  Driver Sense to detect signs of drowsiness and distracted driving Cabin Sense ensures passenger safety by detecting posture, seat belts, etc.  Containment leak detection Dow Chemical reached the goal of zero safety-related incidents using computer vision and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to detect possible containment leaks within its production environment. They used Azure Video Analyzer, an AI-applied service for detecting objects, people, and keyframes, to address personal protective equipment (PPE) detection and entrance gate monitoring. Smart construction sites Komatsu and NVIDIA introduced smart construction sites to improve the operational safety and productivity of job site workers. The drones collect images of the construction site. The CV model runs on the edge, powered by NVIDIA’s Jeston Nano GPU, and then analyzes these images to display site conditions in real-time. Operational safety The integration of virtual reality (VR) into Mustang Mach-E technician training by Ford and Bosch improves operational safety. The VR tool simulates high-voltage systems (components of electric vehicles that store and use high voltage), minimizing the necessity for hands-on training and reducing potential risks. Moreover, location-independent training allows technicians to operate in a more secure operational environment. Quality Control Quality control is an important process in manufacturing because high-quality products save costs and enhance a brand's reputation, reflecting well-designed processes. Studies suggest that stopped production costs are very high, around 22000$ per minute. Hence, robust inspection of final products ensures that they align with the manufacturer's set standards of quality and consistency. Here’s how computer vision aids quality control in manufacturing: Pharmaceutical quality control England-based Pharma Packaging Systems has introduced a CV-based solution for tablet counting and quality inspection. They use CV algorithms to process tablet images for the correct dimension and color and count the tablet occurrences within the frame. Defective tablets are automatically rejected in the production line. Automobile fabric inspection Manual inspection of automotive fabric is challenging due to inconsistent inspection levels and limited throughput speed. A UK-based automotive fabric producer addressed the challenge by introducing WebSpector, an automatic textile inspection system. This system integrates various lighting conditions, state-of-the-art cameras, and imaging software to detect and classify subtle defects. Food volume inspection 3D vision systems can inspect the presence or absence of a part in food packaging. For instance, a 3D vision system like In-Sight 3D from Cognex provides a sense of depth to verify the volume of the package.  Packaging Inspection Using Cognex In-Sight-3D Automotive quality control FANUC employs a software program named ZDT (Zero Down Time) that utilizes cameras attached to robots. This system collects images and metadata, sending them to the cloud for processing. It effectively identifies potential issues before they occur. In an 18-month pilot across 38 automotive factories on six continents, applied to 7,000 robots, the solution detected and prevented 72 component failures. Oil and gas pipeline performance ExxonMobil collaborated with Microsoft to use the Azure cloud platform for data analytics and computer vision. The advancement of AI in oil and gas underscores the pivotal role of predictive maintenance, enhancing operational efficiency and reducing downtime in critical infrastructures. Different sensors are installed to capture data regarding infrastructure and equipment to ensure optimal performance and detect potential failures. Packaging Companies spend 10-40% of the product's retail price on packaging. Other than visual appeal, packaging offers protection, safety, and usability. However, the likelihood of human error is significant in packaging.  The impact of computer vision in the packaging industry is a game changer, as it provides better accuracy, lowers costs, and frees up resources. Here are examples of companies using computer vision in packaging to build strong customer relationships: Warehouse automation Amazon Sparrow, the first robotic system in Amazon warehouses, utilizes computer vision and AI to handle individual products in the inventory. In 2021, global Amazon employees, assisted by Amazon technologies, processed around 5 billion packages. Cardinal, another example, is a robotic workcell using advanced AI and computer vision for efficient package selection, labeling, and placement in a GoCart for the next phase of its journey. Pick and place robots In collaboration, DHL Parcel and robot integrator AWL created a robotic application designed to pick and place parcels from a randomly arranged pallet onto a sorting installation's conveyor belt. This innovative solution incorporates AI-vision and gripping technology, allowing the robot to handle packages of diverse sizes and weights. With the capacity to lift up to 31.5 kg and process 800 parcels per hour, the robot automates tasks previously performed by humans. Counting chicken trays Tyson Foods faced challenges in accurately monitoring packed chicken tray counts, leading to inefficiencies in inventory management. Tyson Foods collaborated with AWS to implement computer vision (CV) technology for counting chicken trays. The solution offered real-time and accurate counting of chicken trays. Tyson Collaborated With AWS to Build a Counting Solution Using CV Logistics In the early 2010s, Amazon pioneered computer vision in logistics, integrating Kiva Systems robots into its fulfillment centers for autonomous navigation and item retrieval. Later on, services like Amazon Rekognition improved quality assurance and operational efficiency in manufacturing, which were influenced by Kiva Systems. Modern computer vision applications in logistics extend to 24/7 inventory management, automated parcel sorting and packaging, and quality inspection. Some of the real-life examples are given below: Vision picking DHL successfully implemented augmented reality (AR) in a warehouse pilot project, utilizing smart glasses for 'vision picking.' In collaboration with Ricoh and Ubimax, staff wore head-mounted displays showing task information, improving picking efficiency by 25%. The warehouse personnel could pick up 20000 items and fulfill 9000 orders. Package management WeWork faced significant challenges in package management in its mailrooms. They incorporated OCR and CV solutions from PackageX to read text, QR codes, and barcodes, which reduced the processing time to 85%. Dismantling Disassembly involves safely separating a product's components through nondestructive methods, while irreversible separation is termed dismantling or dismounting. Manufacturers must safely take down structures and focus on environmental care, cost reduction, and material treatment. Computer vision is helping manufacturers overcome dismantling challenges.  Here are some examples: Robotic sorting AMP Robotics launched an AI-guided system employing two high-performance robots to efficiently sort materials at an impressive speed of 160 pieces per minute. The AMP Neuron platform uses computer vision and machine learning to identify material characteristics such as colors, textures, shapes, sizes, and patterns in precise pick-and-place operations. Mobile component recycling Apple's disassembly robot, Daisy, efficiently extracts valuable materials from nine iPhone versions, sorting high-quality components for recycling. Daisy can process up to 200 iPhones per hour, extracting and sorting components that traditional recycling methods may not recover and doing so with higher quality. Wood recycling Europe's third-largest panelboard producer utilizes TOMRA recycling sorting's advanced X-ray transmission and deep learning wood sorting solutions. CV models help them better understand unique object characteristics and how to classify the objects transported on the conveyor belt and scanned by the sensors. This ensures the high-performance and reliable separation of non-processed wood, contributing to the production of wood products with up to 50% recycled content. Construction waste recycling Globally, building and infrastructure projects generate a significant volume of bulky Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste, constituting over a third of Europe's total waste. The ZenRobotics Heavy Picker, recognized as the world's strongest recycling robot, efficiently sorts heavy C&D waste, handling materials such as wood, plastics, metals, and inert items weighing up to 30 kilos. This unmanned robot can operate 24/7 for continuous sorting. ZenRobotics Recycling Robot ♻️ Recycling saves the planet; planting trees ensures its future. Explore how Treeconomy uses Encord to Accurately Measuring Carbon Content in Forests, resulting in reliable carbon offsets. Benefits of Using Computer Vision in Manufacturing According to a Forrester survey, 64% of global business purchase influencers find computer vision crucial, with 58% expressing interest in implementing CV technology at their firm. Some key benefits of implementing CV solutions in manufacturing include: Increased productivity: According to Deloitte, adopting computer vision and automation speeds up manufacturing cycles. They increase labor productivity and production output to about 12% and 10%, respectively. Enables safer operations for the workforce: Computer vision makes manufacturing environments safe as they monitor workers' conditions, identify abnormalities, and recognize signs of fatigue. Eliminating errors: Tasks handled by computer vision eliminate human error because of their precise nature. Reducing errors close to zero ultimately improves the quality of the product. Reduced operating costs: Improved efficiency and reduced machine downtime, achieved through automation and computer vision-based maintenance (potentially up to 50%, according to McKinsey), lead to overall operating cost reduction. Critical Challenges of Computer Vision in Manufacturing The manufacturing industry has witnessed improved productivity due to computer vision. However, there are many challenges to employing computer vision in real-world use cases. Key challenges include: Inadequate hardware: Most computer vision solutions combine high-end hardware requirements and optimized software. Generally, CV solutions require high-resolution cameras, sensors, and bots. These gadgets and infrastructure components are costly and require special care. Lack of high-quality data: Computer vision works best with high-quality training data. The absence of quality data leads to project failure. For instance, lack of quality data is one of the reasons many AI tools failed to perform as expected during COVID-19. Issues with technological integration: Integration of computer vision into existing manufacturing setup faces compatibility issues due to diverse machinery, the need for continuous monitoring, and the requirement of skillful personnel. High costs: Computer vision in manufacturing faces significant cost challenges. Cloud-based processing has dynamic costs and latency issues, while edge deployment requires careful hardware consideration. For instance, CCD cameras can range from $30 to  $3,500, and different cloud providers offer different pricing tiers amounting to thousands. Algorithm complexity is another issue—lightweight models offer cost-effective scaling compared to large models. To save costs, manufacturers should also avoid using proprietary data, which can backfire, leading to deteriorating results. Computer Vision Applications in Manufacturing: Key Takeaways Computer vision enables manufacturers to interpret visual data like humans and automate repetitive tasks. Key computer vision techniques include object detection and recognition, image classification, and segmentation. Computer vision applications in manufacturing cover many areas, including designing, production, quality assurance, packaging, logistics, and dismantling. CV facilitates many industries with visual inspection, predictive maintenance, intelligent processes, error detection, automated assembly lines, and robotic collaboration. Computer vision benefits manufacturing processes with high productivity, more safety, and less human error. Challenges for CV in manufacturing include expensive hardware, a lack of skilled professionals, and high-quality data.

Remember Atlas? Boston Dynamics’s acrobatic humanoid robot that can perform somersaults, flips, and parkour with human-like precision. That’s a leading example of state-of-the-art robotics engineering powered by modern computer vision (CV) innovation. It features athletic intelligence, real-time perception, and predictive motion control. Today, organizations are realizing the significant benefits of deploying intelligent robots. Their ability to understand the environment and adapt to any situation makes them extremely useful for laborious and repetitive tasks, such as: Industrial inspection to detect anomalies, Remotely investigating critical situations like chemical or biological hazards, Site planning and maintenance, Warehouse automation,   This article will explore the applications of computer vision in the robotics domain and mention key challenges that the industry faces today. Key Applications of Computer Vision in Robotics Autonomous Navigation and Mapping Computer vision is pivotal in enabling robots to navigate complex environments autonomously. By equipping robots with the ability to perceive and understand their surroundings visually, they can make informed decisions and maneuver through intricate scenarios efficiently. Key use cases include: Autonomous vehicles and drones: Autonomous vehicles (like Waymo) process real-time data from cameras, LiDAR, and radar sensors to detect lane markings, pedestrians, and other vehicles, ensuring safe road navigation. Delivery robots like Starship utilize computer vision to navigate sidewalks and deliver packages autonomously to customers' doorsteps. Drones, such as those from DJI, use CV  for obstacle avoidance, object tracking, and precise aerial mapping, making them versatile tools in agriculture, surveying, and cinematography. Industrial automation solutions: In warehouse automation, like Amazon's Kiva robots, computer vision-guided robots perform pick and place operations, efficiently locating, assembling, and transporting items, revolutionizing order fulfillment. Mining and construction equipment, as demonstrated by Komatsu, employ computer vision to enhance safety and productivity by enabling autonomous excavators, bulldozers, and compact track loaders engineered for construction tasks like digging, dozing, and moving materials. Fully Autonomous Driver – The Waymo Driver Object Detection and Recognition Object recognition classifies and identifies objects based on visual information without specifying their locations, while object detection not only identifies objects but also provides their locations through bounding boxes and object names. Key applications include: Inventory management: Mobile robotics like the RB-THERON enable efficient inventory tracking in warehousing, employing object detection to autonomously update records, monitor inventory levels, and detect product damage. Healthcare services: Akara, a startup specializing in advanced detection techniques, has developed an autonomous mobile robot prototype to sanitize hospital rooms and equipment, contributing to virus control. Check out how Encord helped Viz.ai in Accelerating Medical Diagnosis. Home automation and security system: Ring's home security systems, like Ring Doorbells, employ cutting-edge computer vision technology to provide real-time camera feedback for enhanced security and convenience. Astro, an advanced Alexa robot, represents the fusion of AI, robotics, and computer vision for home interaction and monitoring with features like navigation and visual recognition. Gestures and Human Pose Recognition Gesture recognition allows computers to respond to nonverbal cues, including physical movements and voice commands, while human pose tracking involves detecting and tracking key points. In 2014, Alexander Toshev introduced DeepPose, a landmark in human pose estimation, using CNNs. This groundbreaking work catalyzed a shift towards deep learning-based approaches in Human Pose Estimation (HPE) research. Pose recognition to prevent falls in care homes Recently, natural human-computer interaction methods like recognizing faces, analyzing movements, and understanding gestures have gained significant interest in many industries. For instance: Healthcare and rehabilitation: Pepper, Softbank Robotics humanoid, recognizes faces and emotions, assisting those with limited conversation skills. Socially assistive robots (SAR) offer verbal support and care for individuals with dementia. Moreover, the ABLE Exoskeleton is a lightweight device designed for patients with spinal cord injuries. An award-winning health tech company Viz.ai uses Encord’s to annotate more speedily and accurately. Due to Encord, clinical AI teams can accelerate processes and swiftly review medical imaging. Retail and customer service: Retail robots like LoweBot equipped with gesture recognition can assist customers in finding products within the store. Customers can gesture or ask for help, and the robot can respond by providing directions and information about product locations. One of our global retail customers uses Encord's micro-model & interpolation modules to track and annotate different objects. They improved their labeling efficiency by 37% with up to 99% accuracy. Gaming and Entertainment: Microsoft Kinect, a motion-sensing input device, revolutionized gaming by allowing players to control games through body movements. Gamers can interact with characters and environments by moving their bodies, providing an immersive and engaging gaming experience. Want to know how human pose estimation and object detection benefit in the real world? Explore how Encord helps Tenton AI Use Computer Vision to Prevent Falls in Care Homes and Hospitals. Facial and Emotion Recognition Facial and emotion recognition (ER) provide robots with the ability to infer and interpret human emotions, enhancing their interactions with people. Emotion models broadly fall into two categories: Categorical models, where emotions are discrete entities labeled with specific names, such as fear, anger, happiness, etc.  Dimensional models, where emotions are characterized by continuous values along defined features like emotional valence and intensity, plotted on a two-dimensional axis. ER tasks use various input techniques, including facial expressions, voice, physiological signals, and body language, to build robust CV models. Some advanced feature sets include: Brain activity: Various measurement systems, such as electroencephalography (EEG), are available for capturing brain activity.  Thermal signals: Alterations in emotional states lead to blood vessel redistribution through vasodilation, vasoconstriction, and emotional sweating. Infrared thermal cameras can identify these variations as they affect skin temperature. Voice: We naturally can deduce the emotional state conveyed by a speaker's words. These emotional changes align with physiological changes like larynx position and vocal fold tension, resulting in voice variations that can be used for accurate acoustic emotion recognition. Key applications of emotion recognition include: Companionship and mental health: A survey of 307 care providers in Europe and the United States revealed that 69% of physicians believe social robots can alleviate isolation, enhance companionship, and potentially benefit patients' mental health. For instance, social robots like ElliQ engage in thousands of user interactions, with a significant portion focused on companionship.  Digital education: Emotion recognition tools can monitor students' emotional well-being. It can help identify emotional challenges such as frustration or anxiety, allowing for timely interventions and support. If signs of distress or anxiety are detected, the system can recommend counseling or provide resources for managing stress.  Surveillance and interrogation: Emotion recognition in surveillance identifies suspicious behavior, assessing facial expressions and body language. In interrogations, it aids in understanding the emotional state of the subject. Augmented and Virtual Reality Augmented reality (AR) adds digital content (digital images, videos, and 3D models) to the real world via smartphones, tablets, or AR glasses. Meanwhile, virtual reality (VR) immerses users in computer-generated environments through headsets, replacing the real world. The increasing adoption of AR and VR is making its way into numerous industries. For instance:  Education and training: Students use AR/VR apps for interactive learning at home. For instance, Google Arts & Culture extends learning beyond classrooms with AR/VR content for schools. Zspace offers AR/VR learning for K-12 education, career and technical education, and advanced sciences with all-in-one computers featuring built-in tracking and stylus support.  Music and Live Events: VR music experiences have grown significantly, with companies like Wave and MelodyVR securing substantial funding based on high valuations. They offer virtual concerts and live performances, fostering virtual connections between artists and music enthusiasts. Manufacturing: As part of Industry 4.0, AR technology has transformed manufacturing processes. For instance, DHL utilized AR smart glasses for "vision picking" in the Netherlands, streamlining package placement on trolleys and improving order picking. Moreover, emerging AR remote assistance technology, with the HoloLens 2 AR headset, is making an impact. For instance, Mercedes-Benz is using HoloLens 2 for automotive service and repairs. Agricultural Robotics The UN predicts that the global population will increase from 7.3 billion today to 9.8 billion by 2050, driving up food demand and pressuring farmers. As urbanization rises, there is a growing concern about who will take on the responsibility of future farming. Agricultural robots are boosting crop yields for farmers through various technologies, including drones, self-driving tractors, and robotic arms. These innovations are finding unique and creative uses in farming practices. Prominent applications include: Agricultural drones: Drones have a long history in farming, starting in the 1980s with aerial photography. Modern AI-powered drones have expanded their roles in agriculture, now used for 3D imaging, mapping, and crop and livestock monitoring. Companies like DJI Agriculture and ZenaDrone are leading in this field. Autonomous tractors: The tractor, being used year-round, is a prime candidate for autonomous operation. As the agricultural workforce declines and ages, autonomous tractors like YANMAR could provide the industry's sought-after solution. Irrigation control: Climate change and global water scarcity are pressing issues. Water conservation is vital in agriculture, yet traditional methods often waste water. Precision irrigation with robots and calibrators minimizes waste by targeting individual plants. Autonomous sorting and packing: In agriculture, sorting and packing are labor-intensive tasks. To meet the rising demand for faster production, many farms employ sorting and packing robots. These robots, equipped with coordination and line-tracking technology, significantly speed up the packing process. Explore how Encords tools are Transforming Fruit and Vegetable Harvesting & Analytics with Computer Vision. DJI Phantom 4 Shooting Images for Plant Stand Count Space Robotics Space robots operate in challenging space environments to support various space missions, including satellite servicing, planetary exploration, and space station maintenance. Key applications include: Planetary exploration: Self-driving reconnaissance vehicles have made significant discoveries during Martian surface exploration. For instance, NASA's Spirit rover and its twin, Opportunity, researched the history of climate and water at various locations on Mars. Planetary robot systems are also crucial in preparing for human missions to other planets. The Mars rovers have been used to test technologies that will be used in future human missions. Satellite repair and maintenance: To ensure the satellite's longevity and optimal performance, satellite repair and maintenance operations are essential, yet they present significant challenges that can be overcome using space robotics. For instance, in 2020, MEV-1 achieved a successful automated rendezvous with a non-transmitting satellite, Intelsat 901, to extend its operations. This operation aimed to conduct an in-orbit service check and refuel the satellite. Moreover, NASA engineers are actively preparing to launch OSAM-1, an unmanned spacecraft equipped with a robotic arm designed to reach and refurbish aging government satellites. Cleaning of space debris: Space debris, whether natural meteorites or human-made artifacts, poses potential hazards to spacecraft and astronauts during missions. NASA assesses the population of objects less than 4 inches (10 centimeters) in diameter through specialized ground-based sensors and examinations of returned satellite surfaces using advanced computer vision techniques Military Robotics Military robotics is crucial in modern defense and warfare. Countries like Israel, the US, and China are investing heavily in AI and military robotics. These technologies enhance efficiency, reduce risks to soldiers, and enable missions in challenging environments, playing a pivotal role in contemporary warfare. Key applications include: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): UAVs, commonly known as drones, are widely used for reconnaissance, surveillance, and target recognition. They provide real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, enabling military forces to gather vital information without risking the lives of pilots. Surveillance: Robotic surveillance systems involving ground and aerial vehicles are vital for safeguarding crucial areas. The Pentagon, with private contractors, has developed software that integrates reconnaissance footage, highlighting flags, vehicles, people, and cars, as well as tracking objects of interest, for a human analyst’s attention. Aerial refueling: Autonomous aerial refueling systems enable mid-air refueling of military aircraft, extending their operational range and mission endurance.  Landmine removal: Robots equipped with specialized sensors and tools are used to detect and safely remove landmines and unexploded ordnance, reducing the threat to troops and civilians in conflict zones. For instance, Achkar and Owayjan of The American University of Science & Technology in Beirut have developed an AI model with a 99.6% identification rate on unobscured landmines. VS-50 and TMI-42 Landmine Classification Using the Proposed Model Now that we understand various computer applications in robotics, let’s discuss some major benefits you can leverage across industries. Benefits of Using Computer Vision in Robotics Robots equipped with computer vision technology revolutionize industries, yielding diverse benefits, such as: Improved productivity: Computer vision-based robotics enhances task efficiency, reduces errors, and saves time and resources. Machine vision systems can flexibly respond to changing environments and tasks. This boosts ROI through lower labor costs, and improves accuracy with long-term productivity gains. Task automation: Computer vision systems automate repetitive but complex tasks, freeing up humans for creative work. This speeds up cumbersome tasks for an improved time-to-market for products, increases business ROI, and boosts job satisfaction, productivity, and skill development. Better quality control: Robots with computer vision enhance quality control, reducing defects and production costs. Robotic vision systems can detect hazards, react in real-time, and autonomously handle risky tasks, reducing accidents and protecting workers. Despite many benefits, CV-powered robots face many challenges when deployed in real-world scenarios. Let’s discuss them below. What are the challenges of implementing computer vision in robotics?In robotic computer vision, several critical challenges must be addressed for reliable and efficient performance. For instance: Scalability: As robotic systems expand, scalability challenges arise. Scaling operations demand increased computing power, energy consumption, and hardware maintenance, often affecting cost-effectiveness and environmental sustainability.  Camera placement and occlusion: Stability and clarity are essential for optimal robot vision, which requires accurate camera placement. Occlusion occurs when part of an object is hidden from the camera's view. Robots may encounter occlusion due to the presence of other objects, obstructed views by their own components, or poorly placed cameras. To address occlusion, robots often rely on matching visible object parts to a known model and making assumptions about the hidden portions. Operating environment: Inadequate lighting hinders object detection. Hence, the operating environment for a robot must offer good contrast and differ in color and brightness from the detectable objects. Additionally, fast movement, like objects on conveyors, can lead to blurry images, impacting the CV model’s recognition and detection accuracy. Data quality and ethical concerns: Data quality is pivotal in ensuring ethical robot behavior. Biased or erroneous datasets can lead to discriminatory or unsafe outcomes. For instance, biased training data for facial recognition can result in racial or gender bias, raising ethical concerns about the fairness and privacy of AI applications in robotics. Computer Vision in Robotics: Key Takeaways Computer vision enables robots to interpret visual data using advanced AI models, similar to human vision. Use cases of computer vision in robotics include autonomous navigation, object detection, gesture and human pose recognition, and facial and emotion recognition. Key applications of computer vision in robotics span autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, healthcare, retail, agriculture, space exploration, and the military. The benefits of using robotics with computer vision include improved productivity, task automation, better quality control, and enhanced data processing. Challenges in computer vision for robotics include scalability, occlusion, camera placement, operating environment, data quality, and ethical concerns.

Language models like GPT-4 have significantly progressed in writing code and drafting documents. However, their development faces challenges, particularly in safety and ethical considerations. One prominent technique in aligning these Large Language Models (LLMs) with human values is Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). In RLHF, LLMs are trained to generate helpful outputs and align with human preferences. Yet, this technique encounters challenges due to its reliance on human-generated feedback, which has scalability and resource allocation limitations. Addressing these challenges, Reinforcement Learning from AI Feedback (RLAIF) emerges as a novel approach. RLAIF employs another AI model for feedback, guided by a set of principles outlined in a constitution. This constitution is crucial as a guideline to ensure the AI’s feedback aligns with ethical and safety standards. RLAIF retains the beneficial attributes of RLHF, such as generating helpful outputs, but also makes strides in enhancing safety, reducing subjectivity, and improving scalability. By automating the reference annotation process with AI, RLAIF solves the problem of collecting extensive human feedback, making the learning process more efficient. One of the key aspects contributing to the effectiveness of RLAIF is its advanced prompting techniques, which improve AI-generated feedback by providing examples and guiding thoughts for consistency. This method enables AI models to match human preferences with minimal human involvement. Research indicates that AI models trained with RLAIF perform comparably to those trained with RLHF, particularly in tasks like text summarization. RLAIF stands out as a scalable and efficient alternative to traditional reinforcement learning methods, achieving similar performance levels with reduced need for human annotations. This article will provide an in-depth look at the mechanisms and implications of RLAIF, illustrating how it addresses the limitations of RLHF and opens new avenues for developing safe and ethical AI systems. Reinforcement Learning (RL) Basics Reinforcement Learning (RL) is artificial intelligence that helps with decision-making and motor control. It works by trying different actions in an environment to get the best overall result. People learn from experience by understanding that actions have consequences. These consequences can impact future behavior. Reinforcement Learning The Concept of Reinforcement Learning in AI At the core of RL are two main entities: the agent and the environment.  The agent represents the decision-maker. The environment embodies the world where the agent operates. During each interaction step, the agent gets a state observation from the environment and chooses an action.  The environment then responds to this action, leading to a new state and providing a reward signal to the agents. This reward signal is a numerical value indicating the desirability of the state resulting from the agent's action. The agent's objective is to maximize the total rewards, known as the return, over time. Use of Reward Signals The reward signal in RL is pivotal, guiding the agent's learning process. It varies based on the current state of the world, the action taken, and the next state. This signal can depend on the current state or the state-action pair. The agent aims to gather as many rewards as possible during a trajectory. You can have two types of trajectories: finite horizon and infinite horizon. The finite-horizon trajectory adds rewards for a set number of steps—the infinite-horizon trajectory discounts future rewards based on time. The RL optimization problem involves choosing a policy that maximizes expected return. A policy is a strategy the agent employs to decide actions based on the current state. The challenge is to find the best policy, called \(\pi^*\), that gives the highest expected return in all state paths. To do this, you need to figure out how likely different paths are and what rewards each one has. You have to consider all the possible paths the agent could choose. Overview of RLHF When human feedback is added to reinforcement learning, AI applications align more with human goals. RLHF improves AI models' efficiency by enhancing their understanding and generation of language. It also helps with tasks like text classification and translation. An agent in reinforcement learning learns to make decisions by interacting with its environment. It receives feedback to adjust its decision-making. RLHF improves this process by involving humans through feedback to fine-tune the reward function that guides the learning process of the AI. It focuses on aspects that automated reward systems can't measure. Human evaluators help train the reward model by giving feedback. This balances machine learning with human understanding. RLAIF marks a significant evolution in training AI assistants, primarily addressing the challenges of Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). RLAIF differs from RLHF in its use of AI-generated feedback for training, guided by a constitution that sets forth ethical and safety principles.  This approach ensures that the AI's behavior aligns with these predefined standards, thus enhancing ethical alignment and reducing the subjectivity inherent in human feedback. By automating the feedback process, RLAIF also overcomes scalability issues associated with human-based feedback, making it a more efficient method for training AI on a large scale. The constitution in RLAIF is crucial as it clearly outlines the expected behavioral principles for the AI, ensuring that the training is rooted in ethical considerations and safety standards​​​​. In the RLAIF training process, an AI model, known as the Feedback Model, evaluates responses generated by an AI assistant (Response Model) to various prompts based on constitutional principles. The process begins with generating and revising responses to elicit safe and ethical outputs, then fine-tuning the AI assistant with these revised responses. RLHF Workflow Limitations and Ethical Concerns Associated with RLHF Despite its advantages, RLHF faces several challenges and ethical considerations: Human Involvement Challenges One of the critical limitations of RLHF is the bias inherent in human-provided feedback. Since RLHF relies heavily on human judgment for its learning signals, the AI model may adopt the evaluators' biases. This can affect the learning outcome of the AI model and potentially lead to biased outputs. Process Bottleneck Human labor for data labeling in RLHF can be slow and costly. It often becomes a bottleneck in the process, limiting the scalability and efficiency of the model training. Maintaining Language Consistency and Model Integrity LLM should stay within the original model while improving its responses. This balance is crucial to preserving the language model's integrity and reliability​. Complexity of a Universal Reward System Creating a reward system that satisfies everyone is challenging because of individuals' and groups' varied preferences and values. This complexity makes it challenging to ensure the AI model aligns perfectly with all user expectations, leading to potential misalignments with certain groups or cultural contexts. Broader Ethical Implications of RLHF Misinformation and Social Impact RLHF, while effectively aligning AI systems with human values, can be misused for misinformation or perpetuating societal prejudice. The power of RLHF in content generation, particularly in the context of disinformation and automated trolling, can undermine public trust in media and governance. This misuse highlights the need for careful governance and oversight of RLHF applications​​. Alignment with Human Values AI research aims to create systems aligned with human values and intentions. RLHF is a step forward but faces challenges in ensuring accurate inner alignment without ulterior motives. The design of RLHF models must consider fundamentally conflicting feedback and preferences and reconcile them in a way that respects diverse moral beliefs and cultural contexts​​. Transparency and Accountability Increasing transparency in developing and deploying RLHF-trained models is crucial for safety and accountability. Disclosing details behind RLHF training runs and efforts to mitigate risks can improve industry norms, support societal oversight, and enhance the AI community’s understanding of RLHF​​. Fundamental Limitations It's essential to recognize that some challenges with RLHF are fundamental and cannot be solved entirely. These limitations necessitate using defense-in-depth safety measures and sharing research findings to understand better and address these challenges. Researchers must also communicate their work to the public and media outlets transparently to avoid misinformation and increase digital literacy​​. Governance and Oversight Addressing governance of infrastructure supporting RLHF applications and developing early warning systems for disinformation campaigns are critical. This involves cooperation between governments and industry parties and developing formalized guidelines for guarding against misuse and recommending mitigations​​. While RLHF offers significant benefits in AI alignment and content generation, it also presents substantial challenges and ethical concerns that must be addressed through careful research, transparent governance, and ethical considerations in its application. Mechanics of RLAIF Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF) aligns large language models (LLMs) with human preferences. In RLHF, the process involves taking a pre-trained LLM and exposing it to rewards or punishments based on human judgment of its outputs. This method helps the model act better by being more friendly and helpful. However, a significant limitation of RLHF is the need for extensive human feedback. Collecting suitable preference labels from people can be expensive, take a lot of time, and be challenging to do on a large scale.  Reinforcement Learning from AI Feedback (RLAIF) is a pivotal shift to tackle these challenges. This approach combines RL algorithms with feedback from other AI models (Preference Model (PM)) for hybrid learning. The RLAIF system uses AI-generated feedback to help the learning agent make better decisions. Changing from RLHF to RLAIF solves the problem of limited human feedback in RLHF. This makes the learning process more efficient and scalable. Fundamental Benefits of RLAIF Over RLHF RLAIF Process Here's a detailed breakdown of RLAIF's process and how it generates and uses AI feedback: Step 1: Generate Revisions Initial Response Generation: We use a helpful RLHF model to generate responses. However, it can sometimes produce harmful ones. Critique and Revision: The response is reviewed for harmful aspects, such as unethical or illegal content, based on certain principles. The model then revises the answer to eliminate these harmful elements. Iterative Process: Repeat critiquing and revising using random constitutional principles multiple times. This refines the response, making it harmless and non-evasive. Step 2: Fine-Tune with Revisions Creation of SL-CAI Model: Create a pre-trained model by finetuning the datasets of prompts and the revised responses from Step 1. This model is called the SL-CAI (Supervised Learning for Constitutional AI) model. This model becomes the Response Model in the next step and the basis for the final model after the RL phase. Purpose of Fine-tuning: Fine-tuning prepares the SL-CAI model to generate better responses. It also helps reduce the need for later RL training. Step 3: Generate Harmlessness Dataset Using the SL-CAI Model: This model generates two responses to harmful prompts. Feedback Model Evaluation: A Feedback Model evaluates the responses using constitutional principles, presented as multiple-choice questions. This creates a dataset of preferences, with normalized probabilities as scores for each response. Step 4: Train Preference Model Preference Model Pre-training (PMP): The Preference Model (PM) is pre-trained using the harmlessness dataset before training. The "Harmlessness Dataset" in the context of AI and machine learning refers to data collection used to train AI systems to avoid harmful, unethical, or inappropriate responses, ensuring their interactions are safe and respectful. This training helps the PM improve using information from websites like Stack Exchange. It is particularly useful when there is little data available. Training the PM: The PM uses comparison data from the harmlessness dataset. This allows it to assign preference scores to input pairs (prompt/response). Step 5: Reinforcement Learning Application of Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO): We use Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) to train the SL-CAI model. PPO helps optimize the policy mapping from prompt text to response text. Using PM as a Reward Signal: The PM's output from the previous stage is used as the reward signal for training the SL-CAI model in this RL stage. Additional Considerations Contrast with RLHF: Unlike RLHF, which relies on human-generated preference data, RLAIF automates this process using AI feedback based on constitutional principles. Ethical and Practical Benefits: RLAIF addresses the ethical concerns and inefficiencies of RLHF by using AI feedback, leading to more scalable and potentially more ethically sound models​​. From an ethical standpoint, RLAIF offers a more controlled and consistent environment for training AI models. Traditional reinforcement learning (RL) learns from trial and error in a simulated environment, which is advantageous when ethical rules are not consistently agreed upon or are situation-dependent. RL's ability to adapt and learn from a dynamic environment makes it a suitable candidate for teaching ethics to AI systems​​. RLHF vs RLAIF RLAIF is a complex method that uses AI feedback, model training, and revision processes. The aim is to create AI responses that are useful and safe, with less reliance on human feedback and improved efficiency and ethics in AI training. The RLAIF Process and Constitutions: Creating the Harmlessness Dataset To make AI harmless and honest in Constitutional AI (CAI), we must create the “Harmlessness Dataset.” This involves training AI systems to be harmless and honest. We do this because AI capabilities are getting closer to or surpassing human-level performance. The process described in a research paper on CAI has two main stages. The first stage is supervised learning (SL), and the second stage is reinforcement learning (RL), also known as RL from AI Feedback (RLAIF). Supervised Learning (SL) Stage In the SL stage, the AI initially responds to prompts designed to elicit harmful responses using a "helpful-only" assistant. These initial responses are often harmful or toxic. The model is then prompted to critique its response based on principles or a "constitution." After critiquing, it revises its initial response in light of the critique. This process of critique and revision is repeated, drawing on various principles from the Constitution each time. This process helps improve the model's responses to match the desired behavior. It allows for adjustments. The revised responses improve a pre-trained language model through supervised learning. During this stage, we shape the model's early behavior. This makes it less likely to explore and shortens the training time in the next RL phase. Reinforcement Learning (RLAIF) Stage In the RL stage, the process mimics RLHF. It replaces human preferences with AI-generated feedback. This feedback is based on constitutional principles and focuses on harmlessness. The AI compares pairs of responses to each prompt. It decides which response aligns more with a constitutional principle. The evaluation creates an AI preference dataset for harmlessness. It's mixed with human feedback data on helpfulness. A preference model (PM) is then trained on this combined data.  In the last step, we will fine-tune the AI assistant using the SL training method. This will result in a policy trained with RLAIF. This method improves the AI's ability and trustworthiness. It also emphasizes transparent decision-making and explains the AI's reasoning. We want to develop this CAI technique for a few reasons: First, we want to find better ways to supervise AI.  Second, we want to improve existing models by making their responses less evasive.  Third, we want to increase transparency in AI decision-making.  Finally, we want to rely less on human feedback to train harmless AI systems. This new approach improves AI training, allowing us to create helpful and honest AI systems. It takes work to achieve this balance with traditional methods. The RLAIF process, coupled with the development of the Harmlessness Dataset, facilitates the training of AI models to strike a balance between helpfulness and harmlessness. By using constitutional principles, we can make AI systems more autonomous and responsible. The Constitution in RLAIF The RLAIF's Constitution is a guide that outlines principles for the AI's decision-making process. The RLAIF method relies on this constitution to guide AI models to act ethically. The constitution of RLAIF plays a crucial role in guiding the AI's feedback and responses. The AI must follow guidelines when responding to prevent harmful or unethical outputs. The constitution reduces the risks of AI responses by ensuring they follow ethical standards. In a field where AI is advancing quickly, it is crucial to consider potential harm. The constitution helps make AI models safer and improves RLAIF models compared to RLHF. RLAIF models are as helpful as RLHF models but are also much safer. The constitution-driven RLAIF method is less subjective. It relies on something other than a small pool of humans and their preferences, like RLHF. Lastly, RLAIF is a more scalable supervision technique than RLHF, guided by the constitution. The Constitutional AI used in RLAIF has been distilled into nine core principles, each addressing a different aspect of AI behavior: Models should not promote harmful content. To ensure the content is right, don't include anything that is unfair, mean, harmful, against the law, insensitive, rude, unjust to gender, or unfair to a group of people. Positive direction in conversations: Models should aim to steer conversations towards positive outcomes. To address harmful assumptions, the model should politely point them out if a human makes them. The model should address assumptions humans make that cause problems. Age-appropriate content: The model should avoid providing unsuitable content for all ages. Legality and safety: Models should not provide legally questionable or dangerous advice. Please provide non-controversial responses that align with moral and ethical standards. The model should respond like a caring friend or therapist, showing empathy and sensitivity. The model should not assist with criminal activities like violence, theft, hacking, or robbery. The RLAIF constitution guides how AI models behave to ensure they follow ethical and social rules. It also keeps them helpful and scalable.  What is RLAIF: Key Takeaways Reinforcement Learning from AI Feedback (RLAIF) is a big step forward compared to Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLHF). It's especially useful for large language models like GPT-4. RLAIF is better because it can handle more data at scale and is more efficient. It uses AI-generated feedback instead of human feedback. This shift to AI-generated feedback enhances the efficiency and speed of training AI systems. Additionally, RLAIF optimizes the AI's ability to align with desired outcomes, although it may not directly improve understanding human preferences. RLAIF uses a Preference Model (PM) that follows constitutional principles. This ensures that AI responses are ethical, safe, and high-quality. The constitution sets rules for AI decision-making. It makes sure AI follows ethical and social standards. This is important as AI keeps evolving. RLAIF is moving towards an automated, moral feedback system focusing on responsible AI governance and ethical guidelines.

If you have built computer vision applications for any time, you have likely had to grapple with the challenge of bad-quality images in your data. This issue may manifest in various forms, such as mislabeled images, inconsistent image resolutions, noise, or other types of distortion. Such flaws in the data quality can lead to models learning the incorrect features, resulting in incorrect or untrustworthy classifications and outputs. These issues can cause significant setbacks in areas where accuracy and reliability are paramount, which can cause initiatives to fail and waste project resources. How do you enhance your models' effectiveness? The key is a systematic process of investigating, assessing, and improving the quality of your image data. This is where Encord Active steps in — offering a robust framework to pinpoint and label images that are causing issues while supplying tools to refine the overall quality of your dataset. This article will show you how to use Encord Active to explore images, identify and visualize potential issues, and take the next steps to rectify low-quality images. In particular, you will: Use the popular Caltech101 dataset from the Torchvision Datasets library. Delve into the steps of creating an Encord Active project. Define and run quality metrics on the dataset. Visualize the quality metrics. Indicate strategies to fix the issues you identified. Ready? Let’s delve right in! 🚀 Using Encord Active to Explore the Quality of Your Images Encord Active enables you to find and fix label errors through data exploration, model-assisted quality metrics, and a one-click labeling integration. It takes a data-centric approach to improving model performance. With Encord Active, you can: Explore your data through interactive embeddings, precision/recall curves, and other advanced visualizations. Slice your visual data across metric functions to identify data slices with low performance. Surface and prioritize valuable data for labeling - crucial for training the model with high-quality data. Flag poor-performing slices and send them for review. Export your new data set and labels. Check out the project on GitHub. Demo: Explore the Quality of Caltech 101 Images to Train ML Models In this article, you will use Encord Active to explore the quality of the “Caltech 101” images. You’ll access the dataset through the Torchvision Datasets library.  The dataset includes many object categories, such as animals, vehicles, household objects, etc. Examples of categories include "airplanes," "faces," "motorbikes," "helicopters," "chairs," "laptops," and others. Downstream, you can train a computer vision model for multi-class image classification or object recognition once you have good-quality data. The dataset consists of 101 object categories, with varying images per category. It is renowned for its diversity in object appearance, viewpoint, lighting, and scale, making it a challenging benchmark for object recognition algorithms. We hosted the code for this walkthrough on GitHub. Open the Notebook side-by-side with this blog post. Interested in more computer vision, visual foundation models, active learning, and data quality notebooks? Check out the Encord Notebook repository. Install Torchvision Datasets to Download and Generate the Dataset To download and generate datasets for various computer vision tasks, Torchvision Datasets provides pre-configured datasets. It is a part of the popular PyTorch library, including sub-packages like Torchvision Models. Install the latest version of Torchvision from the documentation page. With a few lines of code, you can access and download datasets like CIFAR-10, ImageNet, MNIST, and many others, saving time and effort in data preparation. These well-structured datasets come with predefined classes and labels, making them easily adaptable for training and evaluating machine learning models. Load the ‘Caltech101’ Dataset Loading a dataset from Torchvision is straightforward: Install the library and download the dataset. Torchvision comes pre-installed with your Colab instance, but if you are running this walkthrough locally, you can install the library with PyPi. The version installed for this article is `0.16.0+cu118`. To download ‘Caltech101’, run the following command: from pathlib import Path from torchvision import datasets datasets.Caltech101(Path.cwd(), target_type="category", download=True) `target_type="category"` specifies that each image is associated with a category label (e.g., "airplanes," "faces," etc.). If you are running this walkthrough on Google Colab, run the following utility code to forcibly assign file descriptor numbers 1 (stdout) and 2 (stderr) to the “sys.stdout” and “sys.stderr” objects, respectively, to affect how the instance handles the output and errors within a Python script: import sys sys.stdout.fileno = lambda: 1 sys.stderr.fileno = lambda: 2 Create an Encord Active Project You must specify the directory containing your datasets when using Encord Active for exploration. You will initialize a local project with the image files—there are different ways to import and work with projects in Encord. Encord Active provides functions and utilities to load all your images, compute embeddings, and, based on that, evaluate the embeddings using pre-defined metrics. The metrics will help you search and find images with errors or quality issues. Before initializing the Encord Active project, define a function, `collect_all_images`, that obtains a list of all the image files from the `huggingface_dataset_path` directory, takes a root folder path as input, and returns a list of `Path` objects representing image files within the root folder: def collect_all_images(root_folder: Path) -> list[Path]: image_extensions = {".jpg", ".jpeg", ".png", ".bmp"} image_paths = [] for file_path in root_folder.glob("**/*"): if file_path.suffix.lower() in image_extensions: image_paths.append(file_path) return image_paths Set up some configuration parameters, including specifying the `root_folder` where the image data is located (in this case, a directory named "./caltech101") and a `projects_dir` where the project-related data will be stored (in this case, a directory named "./ea/"): root_folder = Path("./caltech101") projects_dir = Path("./ea/") Remember to access and run the complete code in this cell.   Initialize Encord Active Project Next, initialize a local project using Encord Active's `init_local_project` function. This function provides the same functionality as running the `init` command in the CLI. If you prefer using the CLI, please refer to the “Quick import data & labels” guide. if not projects_dir.exists(): projects_dir.mkdir() image_files = collect_all_images(root_folder) try: project_path: Path = init_local_project( files = image_files, target = projects_dir, project_name = "sample_ea_project", symlinks = False, ) except ProjectExistsError as e: project_path = Path("./ea/sample_ea_project") print(e) # A project already exist with that name at the given path. Compute Image Embeddings and Analyze Them With Metrics When dealing with raw image data in computer vision, directly analyzing it can often be challenging due to its high dimensional nature. A typical approach involves generating embeddings for the images, effectively compressing their dimensions, and applying various metrics to these embeddings to derive valuable insights and assess the image quality. Generating these embeddings using pre-trained models, specifically convolutional neural networks (CNNs), is preferable. These models are adept at extracting vital features from images while simultaneously reducing the complexity of the data. Upon acquiring the embeddings, you should apply similarity analysis, clustering, and classification metrics to examine the dataset's characteristics thoroughly. Computing embeddings and applying these metrics can require considerable manual labor. This is where Encord Active comes into play! Encord Active (open source) provides utility functions to run predefined subsets of metrics, or you can execute custom metrics. It computes the image embeddings and runs the metrics by the type of embeddings. Encord Active has three different types of embeddings: Image embeddings - general for each image or frame in the dataset Classification embeddings - associated with specific frame-level classifications Object embeddings - associated with specific objects, like polygons or bounding boxes Use the `run_metrics_by_embedding_type` function to execute quality metrics on the images, specifying the embedding type as `IMAGE`: run_metrics_by_embedding_type( EmbeddingType.IMAGE, data_dir=project_path ) Create a `Project` object using the `project_path` - you will use this for further interactions with the project: ea_project = Project(project_path) {light_callout_start}} Got any questions about Encord Active? Connect with us in the Encord Developer community; we are happy to chat or check out the FAQ page. Exploring the Quality Of Images From the Torchvision Dataset Library Now that you have set up your project, it’s time to explore the images! There are typically two ways you could visualize images with Encord Active (EA): Through the web application (Encord Active UI), Combining EA with visualization libraries to display those embeddings based on the metrics. In this article, we will explore the images within the Caltech101 dataset through the web application UI. 📈 We explored Hugging Face image datasets by combining Encord Active with visualization libraries in the article Exploring the Quality of Hugging Face Image Datasets with Encord Active. %cd ea !encord-active start Your browser should open a new window with Encord Active OS. It should launch the following web page with all your projects: ⚠️ If the terminal seems stuck and nothing happens in your browser, try visiting http://localhost:8000. Visualizing Aspect Ratio Score Distributions of the Caltech101 Images Visualizing the aspect ratio score distributions in image datasets allows you to explore unusual patterns in aspect ratio distributions, which might indicate issues like incorrect data collection or labeling. You can also better understand data diversity to identify biases or gaps, particularly in aspect ratios. This understanding is vital for optimizing model performance, as different models may respond differently to various aspect ratios. Variations in aspect ratios can lead to inconsistencies that can degrade model performance if you don’t handle them properly. Within the web application, click on “sample_ea_project” and navigate to “Summary” >> “Data” >> “Metric Distribution” Let’s take a closer look at the aspect ratio distribution: The distribution is not uniform and has a long tail, meaning there is a significant variation of the aspect ratio within the dataset. Knowing the distribution of aspect ratios can guide your decision on preprocessing images, for example, whether to crop, scale, or use letterboxing to handle different aspect ratios. The long tails to the right indicate that aspect ratios are much larger than the median, which could be considered outliers (unusually wide images). The tall bars at certain aspect ratios indicate that these ratios are very common in the dataset. There is a notably tall bar at an aspect ratio of around 1.22, meaning many images have this aspect ratio—many images in the dataset have widths approximately 22% larger than their heights. Visualizing Image Resolution Distributions of the Caltech101 Images Visualizing the image resolution score distributions provides insights into the variation and quality of image details, which are critical for accurate feature extraction for your CV tasks. It can help detect anomalies or outliers in the dataset, such as images with resolutions that deviate significantly from the majority, which may indicate data collection or labeling errors. Under the “Data” tab, go to “2D Metrics view” and set the “X Metric” to “Width” and the “Y Metric” to “Height”: Most of the data points are clustered at the lower left of the chart, which should tell you that a large number of images have relatively small dimensions in both width and height—typical for most open source datasets. The points are concentrated mostly below 900 pixels in width and 1,000 pixels in height. Meanwhile, outliers towards the right side of the chart show images that may need special consideration in processing or could indicate anomalies in the data pipeline. Inspect the Problematic Images What are the Severe and Moderate Outliers in the Image Set? It may also be beneficial to understand the range and intensity of anomalies across different imaging characteristics. These characteristics encompass metrics like green channel intensity, blue channel intensity, area, image sharpness, uniqueness (singularity), and others. Severe outliers may indicate corrupted images, anomalies, or errors in data collection or processing, while moderate outliers might still be valid data points but with unusual characteristics. Understanding the extent and nature of these outliers can help you design robust models for such anomalies or decide whether to include or exclude them during training. Still under the “Data” tab, check the plot of image outliers based on all the metrics EA detects in your dataset. EA categorizes the outliers into two levels: "severe outliers" (represented in red “tomato”) and "moderate outliers" (represented in orange). From the plot above, the width and the green color channel have the highest number of severe outliers, suggesting a significant deviation from the norm in these measures for the images in the Caltech101 dataset. For almost all metrics, the number of severe outliers is higher than that of moderate outliers, indicating extreme variations in the image properties. The distribution of outliers suggests that there may be a need to investigate the causes of these extreme values. This could lead to data cleaning and additional preprocessing, or you may have to consider these factors during model training to account for the atypical images. 🧼 Recommended: Mastering Data Cleaning & Data Preprocessing   Let’s take a look at some of the images with severe outliers in green, red, and blue channel intensities: Go to “Explorer” and under “Data Metrics," select “Green Values” and sort by descending order: The image with the highest green value intensity is not bad quality. Sift through the rest of the images in the “Explorer” to find the ones that are low quality, given your model training or data objectives. You can do the same for the green and blue channels. The Caltech101 dataset is relatively clean, so you will find that most images in the set may be high quality for CV tasks. What are the Blurry Images in the Image Set? Depending on the specific application, you may find that images with blur can adversely affect your model's accuracy. A model trained on high-resolution, sharp images may struggle to interpret and make correct predictions on images that are not as clear. Blurry images can result in misinterpretations and errors in the model's output, which could be critical. Examining such images within your dataset to determine whether to exclude or improve their quality is important. You can view one of the blurry images in the Explorer to get more insights: You can also click on “SIMILAR” to visualize similar images - this could help you surface more images you may need to inspect. What are the Brightest and Darkest Images in the Dataset? Next, surface images with poor lighting or low visibility. Dark images can indicate issues with the quality. These could result from poor lighting during capture, incorrect exposure settings, or equipment malfunctions. Also, a model might struggle to recognize patterns in such images, which could reduce accuracy. Identify and correct these images to improve the overall training data quality. Change the “Data Metrics” dropdown selection to “Brightness” and sort in descending order: The brightest images look reasonably good quality, but you can look through the explorer to spot images that may not meet the training or data requirements. You can also observe that the distribution of the images based on this metric is reasonably normal. To get the darkest images, sort the “Brightness” in ascending order: There does not appear to be anything wrong with the dark images. You might need to explore other images to determine which ones to sift through. Awesome! You have played with a few pre-defined quality metrics. See the complete code to run other data quality metrics on the images. Next Steps: Fixing Data Quality Issues Identifying problematic images is half the battle. Ideally, the next step would be for you to take action on those insights and fix the issues. Encord Active (EA) can help you tag problematic images, which may skew model performance downstream. Post-identification, you can use various strategies to rectify these issues. Below are some approaches to fix problematic image issues. Tagging and Annotation Once you identify the problematic images, you can tag them within EA with whatever action you deem appropriate. Would you want to remove them from your dataset, label them, or process them? Your model training and data objectives will help you understand an ideal next step. Here is how you can do it for the blurry images we saw earlier: One of the most common workflows we see from our users at Encord is identifying image quality issues at scale with Encord Active, tagging problematic images, and sending them upstream for annotation with Annotate. Re-Labeling Incorrect labels can significantly hamper model performance. EA facilitates the re-labeling process by exporting the incorrectly labeled images to an annotation platform like Encord Annotate, where you can correct the labels. Check out our practical guide to active learning for computer vision to learn more about active learning, its tradeoffs, alternatives, and a comprehensive explanation of active learning pipelines.   Image Augmentation and Correction Image augmentation techniques enhance the diversity and size of the dataset to improve model robustness. Consider augmenting the data using techniques like rotation, scaling, cropping, and flipping. Some images may require corrections like brightness adjustment, noise reduction, or other image processing techniques to meet the desired quality standards. Image quality is not a one-time task but a continuous process. Regularly monitoring and evaluating your image quality will help maintain a high-quality dataset pivotal for achieving superior model performance. Torchvision: Key Takeaways In this article, you defined the objective of training a classification model for your use case with over 101 classes of images. Technically, you “gathered” human labels since the open 'Caltech101' dataset is already loaded in Torchvision. Finally, using Encord Active, you computed image embeddings and ran metrics on the images and embeddings. Inspect the problematic images by exploring the datasets based on objective quality metrics. Identifying and fixing the errors in the dataset will set up your downstream model training and ML application for success.

Remember when Google’s AlphaGo beat the world’s number one Go Champion, Ke Jie, in a three-part match? That was a significant breakthrough for artificial intelligence (AI), proving how powerful AI can be in solving highly complex problems and surpassing human capabilities. The driving force behind AlphaGo’s success was reinforcement learning (RL), an AI sub-domain that enables models to harness uncertainty using a trial-and-error approach, allowing them to perform optimally in various scenarios. While RL improves AI systems in several domains, such as robotics, gaming, finance, etc., they do not perform well in situations requiring more nuanced approaches to problem-solving. For instance, optimizing responses from Large Language Models (LLMs) is complex due to the multiple ground truths for a particular user prompt. Defining a single reward function is challenging and requires human input to help the model understand the most appropriate response. That’s where reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) comes into play! It uses human preference information for AI model training to provide more context-specific and accurate output. In this article, you will:  Explore RLHF in detail Learn about the benefits and challenges of RLHF Introduce a list of top tools you can use to implement RLHF systems efficiently How Does Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback (RLHF) Work? RLHF involves three steps to train a machine learning model. These include model pre-training, reward model training, and fine-tuning. Let’s discuss them below. Pre-Training The first stage in RLHF is to pre-train a model on extensive data to ensure it learns general patterns for performing several tasks. For example, in the context of large language models (LLMs), OpenAI developed InstructGPT using a lighter pre-trained GPT-3 with only 1.3 billion parameters instead of the complete 175 billion parameters from the original model. The resulting model performs better on use cases where following user instructions is required. Similarly, Anthropic pre-trained transformer-based language models with 10 to 52 billion parameters work great for several natural language processing (NLP) tasks, such as summarization and Python code generation. There is no single rule for selecting a suitable initial model for RLHF. However, you can consider multiple factors, like resource capacity, task requirements, data volume, variety, etc., to make the correct choice. For example, you can select the GPT-3 model to create a virtual chatbot for your website. GPT-3 understands human language patterns well due to its pretraining on a massive text corpus. Fine-tuning it for downstream tasks will not consume much computational resources and will not require considerable annotated data due to its zero-shot learning capabilities. Training a Reward Model The next step is to develop a reward model that understands human preferences and assigns appropriate scores to different model outputs. The idea is to have another model - a reward function - that considers human values and assigns a rank to the model's initial prediction. These ranks serve as reward signals for the model. A good rank tells the model that the prediction was desirable, while a negative rank suppresses any further occurrences. These signals are used to fine-tune the initial model for better performance. The illustration below shows this mechanism. Reward Model Training For example, multiple LLMs can generate different text sequences for the same prompt. Human annotators can rank the different sequences according to standard criteria, such as the level of toxicity, harmfulness, hallucination, etc. RLHF platforms can help streamline the process by computing numerical scores for each output based on human preferences. You can train a separate reward model using the samples containing the generated texts and the corresponding human preference scores. RL Fine-Tuning The final step is to use a suitable RL algorithm to fine-tune an initial model’s copy to generate appropriate predictions that align with human preferences. You can freeze a certain number of layers of the copy and only update the parameters of the remaining layers for faster training. The workflow begins with the frozen model - called the policy - generating a particular output. The reward model developed in the previous stage processes this output to compute a reward score. An RL algorithm uses the reward score to update the policy parameters accordingly. For RL fine-tuning, you can use RL algorithms like proximal policy optimization (PPO) asynchronous advantageous actor-critic (A3C) algorithm, and Q-learning. For example, in PPO, the reward model generates a preference score for the policy’s output. Also, it compares the initial model’s and the policy’s output probability distributions based on Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence to assess how far the policy’s prediction space is from the original model. PPO penalizes policy outputs that drift further from the original model’s prediction. The diagram below illustrates the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) Algorithm: It uses the preference score and penalty to update the policy’s parameters. This way, PPO constrains the policy from producing entirely non-sensical outputs. Want to learn how RLHF works in computer vision? Read our Guide to Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback (RLFH) for Computer Vision. Benefits of Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback (RLHF) The system described above is a typical RLHF training process, and it suggests that human input plays a crucial role in reward model training. Here are some of the significant benefits that RLHF has over traditional learning procedures - Reduced Bias RLHF models learn from diverse human feedback. The procedure prevents bias as the model understands human preferences better than a traditional model. However, Ensuring that human feedback comes from a varied and representative group is crucial, as non-diverse feedback can inadvertently introduce new biases. Faster Learning Models that only use automated RL algorithms can take considerable time to learn the optimal policy. With RLHF, quality and consistent human feedback accelerate the learning process by guiding the algorithm in the correct direction. The system can quickly develop a suitable policy for the desired action in a specific state. Improved Task-Specific Performance RLHF allows users to guide the model to output responses more suited to the task. It allows the model to learn to filter out irrelevant outputs and generate desirable results. For example, in a text-generation task, RLHF can help the model learn to prioritize relevant and coherent responses. Safety One significant issue in the Generative AI space is the model’s tendency to disregard how harmful or offensive the output can be. For instance, text-generation models can produce inappropriate content with high accuracy scores based on automated metrics. With RLHF, human feedback prevents a model from generating such output by increasing the model’s safety. However, the safety measure depends on the feedback providers' understanding and definition of what is harmful or offensive. So, the feedback must be context-specific and respect the available guidelines that tell what an inappropriate response entails. Learn more about human feedback in ML models from our article on Human-in-the-Loop Machine Learning (HITL) Explained. Challenges of Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback (RLHF) While RLHF has many advantages, it still faces certain problems that can prevent you from efficiently implementing an RLHF system. Below are a few challenges you must overcome to build a robust RLHF model. Scalability RLHF requires human annotators to fill in their preferences for multiple outputs manually. This is time-consuming and demands domain experts if the output contains technical content. Implementing large-scale RLHF systems can be prohibitively expensive and may hurt feedback quality and consistency.  One possible solution is to use crowd-sourcing platforms to parallelize the feedback process, introduce semi-automated annotation pipelines to reduce reliance on manual effort or generate synthetic feedback using generative models to speed up the process. Human Bias  While RLHF reduces overfitting by including human preferences in the training data, it is still vulnerable to several cognitive biases, such as anchoring, confirmation, and salience bias. For example, information bias can lead humans to label an output with additional but irrelevant information as “better” than a shorter but more precise answer.  These issues can be mitigated by selecting a diverse pool of evaluators, setting clear guidelines for providing feedback, or combining feedback from humans and other LLMs with automated scores like BLEU or ROUGE to compute a more objective performance metric. Optimizing for Feedback Instead of optimizing for the actual task, an RLHF system can produce a model that generates output only to satisfy humans and ignore its true objective. You can overcome this problem by balancing the optimization process to incorporate human feedback and the primary task’s objectives.  Using a hybrid reward structure, where you define task-related rewards and those related to human feedback, is helpful. You can assign different weights to the different types of reward scores to ensure the final model doesn’t overfit human feedback. While mitigation strategies help deal with RLHF challenges, a robust tool can also streamline your RLFH pipelines. Let’s look at a few factors you should consider when selecting the right RLHF tool.  Factors to Consider Before Selecting the Right RLHF Tool Choosing the right RLHF tool can be overwhelming. You must consider several factors before investing in an RLHF platform that suits your needs. The list below highlights some critical factors for making the correct decision. Human-in-the-Loop-Control  You'll need to see whether the tool you're looking for has enough features to allow quick human intervention when things go wrong. It should also enable human annotators with different domain expertise to collaborate efficiently and provide timely feedback to the annotation process. Moreover, the feedback interface must be intuitive to minimize the learning curve and maximize efficiency. It should allow customizable control levels for annotators with varying expertise and facilitate efficient collaboration across domains. Variety and Suitability of RL Algorithms While Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) is a popular RL algorithm, other algorithms can also benefit depending on the task. The tool should have algorithms that match your specific requirements for building an effective RL or RLHF system. Scalability As mentioned earlier, scaling RLHF systems is challenging due to the need for human annotators. An RLHF platform containing collaboration tools, cloud-based integration, batch processing, features to build automated pipelines for data processes, quality assurance, and task allocation can help scale your RLHF infrastructure significantly. Also, the platform must provide sufficient domain experts and customer support on demand for scalability.   Cost  You must consider the costs of installing, operating, and maintaining the tool against your budgetary resources. These costs can include platform licensing or subscription fees, data acquisition costs, costs to train the workforce, and the cost of installing appropriate hardware, such as GPUs, to run complex RLHF processes. Also, the expenses can increase as you scale your models, meaning you must choose a platform that provides the required functionality and flexibility to handle large data volume and variety. Customization and Integration Adaptability is key in RLHF systems, enabling the model to perform well in dynamic environments. The optimal choice is a tool with high customization options for tailoring the reward models according to your needs. Also, it should integrate seamlessly with your existing ML stack to minimize downtime. Data Privacy Since RLHF can involve humans accessing personal data for annotation, an RLHF tool must have appropriate data privacy and security protocols. For example, robust access management features and audit trail logging can help prevent data breaches and compliance issues. It must comply with international data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA while providing robust data encryption and a secure data storage facility. Let’s now discuss the different tools available for implementing RLHF. Top Tools for Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback (RLHF) Although implementing RLHF is challenging, a high-quality RLHF tool can help you through the difficulties by providing appropriate features to develop an RLHF system. Below is a list of the most popular RLHF tools in the market, ranked based on functionality, ease-of-use, scalability, and cost. Encord RLHF Encord RLHF lets you build robust RLHF workflows by offering collaborative features to optimize LLMs and vision-language models (VLMs) through human feedback. Encord RLHF Benefits and key features Encord RLHF enables you to build powerful chatbots that generate helpful and trustworthy responses. The platform lets you moderate content by building LLMs that align with human feedback to flag misinformation, hate speech, and spam. You can quickly benchmark, rank, select, recognize named entities, and classify outputs to validate the LLMs' and VLMs' performances. The platform also lets you prioritize, label, and curate high-quality data with specialized workforces with expertise in RLHF and evaluation. It also comes with high-end security protocols and easy integration capabilities. Best for Sophisticated teams looking to build scalable RLHF workflows for large language models or vision language models. Pricing Book a demo for an appropriate quotation. Appen RLHF Appen RLHF platform helps build LLM products by providing high-quality, domain-specific data annotation and collection features. Its RLHF module benefits from a curated crowd of diverse human annotators with a wide range of expertise and educational backgrounds. Appen RLHF Benefits and key features You can benefit from Appen’s specialists for providing feedback. The tool features robust quality controls to detect gibberish content and duplication. It supports multi-modal data annotation. It provides real-world simulation environments related to your niche. Best for Teams who want to create a powerful LLM application for various use cases. Pricing Pricing information is unavailable Scale Scale is an AI platform that allows the optimization of LLMs through RLHF. Scale Benefits and key features It helps you build chatbots, code-generators, and content-creating solutions. It has an intuitive user interface for providing feedback. It provides collaborative features to help labelers understand task requirements when giving feedback. Best for Teams searching for a robust labeling platform that supports human input. Pricing Pricing information is unavailable Surge AI Surge AI’s RLHF platform powers Anthropic AI’s LLM tool called Claude. Surge AI offers various modeling capabilities for building language models, such as summarization, copywriting, and behavior cloning. Benefits and key features It lets you build InstructGPT-style models. Features safety protocols like SOC 2 compliance. Offers easy integration through API and Software Development Kit (SDK). Best for Teams who want to develop multi-purpose chatbots and generative tools. Pricing Pricing information is unavailable Toloka AI Toloka is a crowd-sourced labeling platform that offers RLHF workflows for fine-tuning LLMs. The platform was a critical factor in the BigCode project – an open scientific collaboration for responsible development and use of LLMs, where it helped in data preparation by labeling 14 categories of sensitive personal data. Toloka Benefits and key features It has an extensive expert community that can provide labeling support 24/7. It comes with ISO-27001 certification. It offers re-training and evaluation features to assess LLM performance. Best for Teams who wish to kick-start RLHF projects in technical domains, such as linguistics or medicine. Pricing Pricing information is unavailable TRL and TRLX Transformers Reinforcement Learning (TRL) is an open-source framework by Hugging Face for training models based on the transformer architecture using RLHF. This framework is superseded by TRLX from Carper AI, an advanced distributed training framework that supports large-scale RLHF systems. Benefits and key features TRL only features the PPO RL algorithm, while TRLX consists of PPO and Implicit Language Q-Learning (ILQL). TRLX can support LLMs with up to 33 billion parameters. Best for Teams who want to work on large-scale transformer-based language model development can use TRLX. Pricing The tool is open-source. RL4LMs Reinforcement Learning (RL) for Language Models (LM) (RL4LMs) is an open-source RLHF library that offers many on-policy RL algorithms and actor-critic policies with customizable building blocks for training transformer-based language models. RL4LMs Workflow Benefits and key features On-policy RL algorithms include PPO, Advantage Actor-Critic (A2C), Trust-Region Policy Optimization (TRPO), and Natural Language Policy Optimization (NLPO). It supports 20+ lexical, semantic, and task-specific metrics that can be used to optimize reward functions. It works well for several tasks, such as summarization, generative common-sense reasoning, and machine translation. Best for Teams who want to build LLM models where the massive action space and defining a reward function are complex. For instance, LLMs for generating long-form stories or having open-ended conversations can benefit from the RL4LMs library. Pricing RL4LMs is open-source. Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback: Key Takeaways RLHF is an active research area with many nuances and complexities. However, the following are key points you must remember about RLHF. RLHF components: RLHF systems involve a pre-trained model, a reward model, and a reinforcement learning algorithm that fine-tunes the pre-trained model with respect to the reward model. Reward function: RLHF improves the traditional RL system by incorporating human feedback in the reward function. Fine-tuning: RL models can be fine-tuned using various algorithms. Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) is the most popular policy-gradient-based algorithm for finding the optimal policy. Enhanced learning: RLHF can enhance the learning process by allowing the RL model to quickly find an optimal policy through reward scores based on human feedback. Scalability challenge: Scaling an RLHF algorithm is challenging since it requires manual input from human annotators. Finding human resources with relevant skills and domain expertise is difficult and also carries the possibility of human error during the feedback process. Possible solutions include crowdsourcing feedback, batch processing, automated scoring methods, and tools that support cloud-based integration with robust collaboration tools. RLHF platforms: Effective RLHF platforms can help mitigate such challenges by providing robust collaborative and safety features. Some popular platforms include Encord RLHF, Scale, and Toloka.

Real-time text detection is vital for text extraction and Natural Language Processing (NLP). Recent advances in deep learning have ushered in a new age for natural scene text identification. Apart from formats, natural texts show different fonts, colors, sizes, orientations, and languages (English being the most popular). It often overwhelms readers, especially those with visual impairments. Natural texts also include complex backgrounds, multiple photographic angles, and illumination intensities, creating text recognition and detection barriers. Text detection simplifies decoding videos, images, and even handwriting for a machine.  In this article, you will work on a project to equip a system to perform real-time text detection from a webcam feed. But, for that, your machine must include a real-timeOCR processing feature. The same OCR powers your applications to perform real-time text detection from the input images or videos. Ready? Let’s start by understanding the problem and project scope. Problem Statement and Scope In this section, you will learn about the use case of text recognition in video streams, its challenges, and, more specifically, how to overcome them. Real-time Text Detection from Webcam Feed The requirement for real-time text detection from camera-based documents is growing rapidly due to its different applications in robotics, image retrieval, intelligent transport systems, and more. The best part is that you can install real-time text detection using the webcam on your computer. OCR-based tools like Tesseract and OpenCV are there to help you out in this regard.  Displaying the Detected Text on the Screen There is no denying the fact that detecting oriented text in natural images is quite challenging, especially for low-grade digital cameras and mobile cameras. The common challenges include blurring effects, sensor noise, viewing angles, resolutions, etc.   Real-world text detection isn't without hurdles. Blurring effects, sensor noise, and varying viewing angles can pose significant challenges, especially for low-grade digital cameras. Overcoming these obstacles requires advanced techniques and tools. Real-Time Text Detection Using Tesseract OCR and OpenCV Text detection methods using Tesseract is simple, quick, and effective. The Tesseract OCR helps extract text specifically from images and documents. Moreover, it generates the output in a PDF, text file, or other popular format. It's open-source Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software that supports multiple programming languages and frameworks. The Tesseract 3x is even more competent as it performs scene text detection using three methods: word finding, line finding, and character classification to produce state-of-the-art results.  Firstly, the tool finds words by organizing the text lines into bubbles. These lines and regions are analyzed as proportional text or fixed pitch. Then, these lines are arranged by word spacing to make word extraction easier. The next step comprises filtering out words through a two-pass process. The first pass checks only if each word is understandable. If the words are recognizable, they will proceed with the second pass. This time, the words use an adaptive classifier where they are recognized more accurately. On the other hand, the Tesseract 4 adopts a neural network subsystem for recognizing text lines. This neural subsystem originated from OCRopus' Python-based LSTM implementation. OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision Library) is open-source for computer vision, image processing, and machine learning. Computer vision is a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on extracting and analyzing useful information from images.  This library allows you to perform real-time scene text detection and image and video processing with the scene text detector. This library has more than 2500 in-built algorithms. The function of these algorithms is to identify objects, recognize images, text lines, and more. So, let’s learn how Tesseract OCR and OpenCV help with real-time text detection in this tutorial. Data Collection and Preprocessing The preprocessing of a video or image consists of noise removal, binarization, rescaling, and more. Thus, preprocessing is necessary for acquiring an accurate output from the OCR. The OCR software imposes several techniques to pre-process the images and videos: Binarization is a technique that converts a colorful or grayscale image into a binary or black-and-white image, enhancing the quality of character recognition. It separates text or image components from the background, making identifying and analyzing text characters easier. De-skewing is a technique that ensures proper alignment of text lines during scanning. Despeckling is used for noise reduction, reducing noise from multiple resources. Word and line detection generate a baseline for shaping characters and words. Script recognition is essential for handling multilingual scripts, as they change at the level of the words. Character segmentation or isolation is crucial for proper character isolation and reconnection of single characters due to image artifacts. Techniques for fixed-pitch font segmentation require aligning the image to a standard grid base, which includes fewer intersections in black areas. Techniques for proportional fonts are necessary to address issues like greater whitespace between letters and vertically intersecting more than one character. Two basic OCR algorithms for text recognition through computer vision techniques are matrix matching and feature extraction.  Matrix matching compares an image to a glyph pixel-by-pixel, known as image correlation or pattern recognition. The output glyph is in the same scale and a similar font. The feature extraction algorithm breaks glyphs into features such as lines, line intersections, and line directions, making the recognition process more efficient and reducing the dimensionality of the texts. Again, the k-nearest neighbors algorithm compares the image features with the stored glyphs to choose the nearest match. The glyphs are symbolic characters or figures recognized as text after an OCR is conducted over an image. New to computer vision? Learn more about computer vision in this article from Encord.   Capturing Video From the Webcam Using OpenCV OpenCV can detect text in different languages using your computer’s webcam. The video streaming process in OpenCV runs on a dedicated thread. It reads live frames from the webcam and caches the new videos in memory as a class attribute.  The video script ingests real-time OCR effects by multi-threading. When the OCR runs in the background, the multi-threading improves the processing by enabling real-time video streaming. The OCR thread updates the detected texts and the boxes, giving them prominent visibility.  🎥 Interested in video annotation? Read our full guide to video annotation in computer vision. Set Up Tesseract OCR and Specify its Executable Path There are several reasons to install Python-tesseract to proceed with your real-time text detection. Its OCR feature  easily recognizes and encodes texts from your video. Moreover, it can read many images, such as PNG, GIF, and JPEG. Thus, it can be used as an individual script. To integrate Tesseract into your Python code, you should use Tesseract’s API. It supports real concurrent execution when you use it with Python’s threading module. Tesseract releases GIL (Generic Image Library) while processing an image. First of all, install the Tesseract OCR in your environment:  pip install pytesseract Then, start importing the required libraries import cv2 import pytesseract import numpy as np from PIL import ImageGrab Set up the executable path for Tesseract OCR # Set the path to the Tesseract executable for Windows OS pytesseract.pytesseract.tesseract_cmd = r'C:\Program Files\Tesseract-OCR\tesseract.exe' Function to Capture the Screen The `capture_screen` function captures the screen content using `ImageGrab.grab` from the Pillow library. This function captures a specific screen region defined by the `bbox` parameter. It converts the captured image from RGB to BGR format, which is suitable for OpenCV.   # Function to capture the screen def capture_screen(bbox=(300, 300, 1500, 1000)): cap_scr = np.array(ImageGrab.grab(bbox)) cap_scr = cv2.cvtColor(cap_scr, cv2.COLOR_RGB2BGR) return cap_scr Webcam Initialization  The code initializes the webcam (if available) by creating a VideoCapture object and setting its resolution to 640x480. # Initialize the webcam cap = cv2.VideoCapture(0) cap.set(3, 640) cap.set(4, 480) while True: # Read a frame from the webcam ret, frame = cap.read() Text Detection and Processing The output stream for real-time text detection can be a file of characters or a plain text stream. However a sophisticated OCR stores the original layout of a page. The accuracy of an OCR can be boosted when there is a lexicon constraint in the output. Lexicons are lists of words that can be presented in a document. However, it becomes problematic for an OCR to improve  detection accuracy when the quantity of non-lexical words increases. It is, however, possible to assume that a few optimizations will speed up OCR in many scenarios, like data extraction from a screen. Additionally, the k-nearest-neighbor analysis (KNN) corrects the error from the words that can be used together. For example, it can differentiate between 'United States of America' and 'United States'. Now, you will learn about automated text extraction after detecting it with Tesseract OCR. Structure of text detection Applying Tesseract OCR to Perform Text Detection on Each Frame In the text detection step, the Tesseract OCR will annotate a box around the text in the videos. Then, it will show the detected text above the box. But this technique works by breaking the video frame-by-frame and applying the tesseract detection to the video frame. The caveat here is that sometimes, you may experience difficulties in text detection due to the abrupt movements of the video objects. Text detection through Tesseract OCR Main Loop - Real-Time Text Detection The following code enters a loop to capture frames from the webcam (or screen capture). It performs text detection on each frame using Tesseract OCR irrespective of the frame rate (fps). # Perform text detection on the frame using Tesseract OCR recognized_text = pytesseract.image_to_string(frame) Bounding Box Detection To draw bounding boxes around the detected text, the code utilizes Tesseract's built-in capabilities for bounding box detection. It uses `pytesseract.image_to_data` with the `pytesseract.Output.DICT` option to obtain information about individual text boxes. The code then loops through the detected boxes, and for each box with a confidence level greater than 0, it draws a green rectangle using `cv2.rectangle` # Perform bounding box detection using Tesseract's built-in capabilities d = pytesseract.image_to_data(frame, output_type=pytesseract.Output.DICT) n_boxes = len(d['text']) for i in range(n_boxes): if int(d['conf'][i]) > 0: (x, y, w, h) = (d['left'][i], d['top'][i], d['width'][i], d['height'][i]) frame = cv2.rectangle(frame, (x, y), (x + w, y + h), (0, 255, 0), 2) Detected text is displayed on the frame with green and drawn with `cv2.putText`  # Draw the detected text on the frame frame_with_text = frame.copy() frame_with_text = cv2.putText(frame_with_text, detected_text, (10, 30), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX, 1, (0, 255, 0), 2) The Google Cloud Vision API is an example of a text extraction API. It can detect and extract text from an image. It has two annotation features to support an OCR. The annotations are: TEXT_DETECTION: It detects and extracts text from any type of image. For example, you might consider a photograph related to a signboard about traffic rules. The JSON of the API formats and stores strings and individual words from the text of that image. Also, it creates bounding boxes around the texts. DOCUMENT_TEXT_DETECTION: The vision API uses this annotation to extract text instancess from a document or dense text. The JSON formats and stores the extracted paragraph, page, word, block, and break information. Four vertices form a quadrilateral bounding box with orientation information in the text instance annotations. The vision API detects text from a local image file through the feature detection process. So, when you send REST requests to the API, it should be a Base64 encoding string for the image file's contents within the body of your request.  Base64 is a group of schemes that encodes binary data into readable text for an image. It represents binary data in a 24-bit sequence. This 24-bit sequence can be further represented as four 6-bit Base64 digits. Base64 reliably carries binary data throughout channels that support text contents. Real-Time Display and Video Output Generally, the text in a video appears in multiple frames. So, you need to detect and recognize the texts present in each frame of the video. The OCR software converts the text content from the video into an editable format. The alphanumeric information in the video must be converted into its ASCII equivalent first. Then, they will be converted to readable text. This way, it detects texts from videos and other imagery formats. Modern OCR systems, such as Tesseract, are designed to automatically extract and recognize text from videos. The OCR identifies the locations of text within the video and proceeds to extract strokes from the segmented text regions, taking into account factors like text height, alignment, and spacing. Subsequently, the OCR processes these extracted strokes to generate bounding boxes, within which the recognized texts are displayed upon completion of the process. Text localization in real time text detection using Tesseract is a crucial step in optical character recognition (OCR) systems. By accurately identifying the location of text within an image or video frame, Tesseract enables the extraction and analysis of textual information. This process involves employing advanced computer vision techniques to detect and outline text regions, allowing for efficient recognition and subsequent interpretation of the detected text. Display the Detected Text The processed frame with the detected text and bounding boxes is displayed using `cv2.imshow`. # Display the frame with detected text cv2.imshow("Frame with Detected Text", frame_with_text) User Interaction The model displays real-time video with a detected text overlay until the user presses the 'q' key. Upon pressing 'q', the loop exits, the webcam is released, and the OpenCV window is closed. # Exit the loop when 'q' is pressed if cv2.waitKey(1) & 0xFF == ord("q"): break self.cap.release() self.video_output.release() cv2.destroyAllWindows() def playback(self): Moreover, you can customize your outputs by using white-listing and black-listing characters. When you choose white-listing characters, Tesseract only detects the characters white-listed by your side. It ignores the rest of the characters in the video or image. Also, you can use black-list characters when you don't want to get the output of some specific characters. Tesseract will black-list them. So, it will not produce the output for these characters. Here is the link to the full code on the GitHub repository. OCR for Mobile Apps  If you need real-time text detection from a mobile scanning app, you must have an OCR as part of that scanning app. The best mobile scanning OCR app has these features – Scanning efficiency: A mobile OCR app must focus on every region of a document. Even the sensor can accurately detect the borders of the document. Also, it doesn’t take too much time to scan the document. Modes of scanning: You can get different scanning modes through this app, such as IDs, books, documents, passports, and images. Document management: It supports a file management activity by saving, organizing, printing, sharing, and exporting digitized files. Customization: You can customize your document scanning by adding a signature, text, watermark, or password protection.  Accuracy: The OCR app emphasizes document digitization. Thus, it produces digitized text from a document without too much delay.  For mobile scanning apps, integrating OCR is essential. An ideal OCR app should scan efficiently and offer various scanning modes, robust document management, customization options, and high accuracy in digitizing text from documents. Wrapping Up So, you have learned text detection in real-time with Tesseract OCR, OpenCV, and Python. OCR software uses text detection algorithms to implement real-time text detection.  Moreover, OCR software can solve other real-world problems, such as - object detection from video and image datasets, text detection from document scanning, face recognition, and more.  Just as we have covered the image-to-text concept in this article, if the concept of text-to-video amazes you, you might want to take a look at our detailed article here. Real Time Text Detection - OpenCV Tesseract: Key Takeaways Real-time text detection is crucial for applications involving text extraction and NLP applications, dealing with diverse fonts, colors, sizes, orientations, languages, and complex backgrounds. Tesseract OCR and OpenCV are open-source tools for real-time text detection. Preprocessing steps in OCR include binarization, de-skewing, despeckling, word and line detection, script recognition, and character segmentation. OCR accuracy can be enhanced with lexicon constraints and near-neighbor analysis. Video frames can be processed in real-time for text detection and recognition, converting alphanumeric information into editable text. Customization options, such as white-listing and black-listing characters, are available in OCR for tailored text detection.

Accurately distinguishing and understanding individual objects in complex images is a significant challenge in computer vision. Traditional image processing methods often struggle to differentiate between multiple objects of the same class, which leads to inadequate or erroneous interpretations of visual data. This impacts practitioners working in fields like autonomous driving, healthcare professionals relying on medical imaging, and developers in surveillance and retail analytics. The inability to accurately segment and identify individual objects can lead to critical errors. For example, misidentifying pedestrians or obstacles in autonomous vehicles can result in safety hazards. In medical imaging, failing to precisely differentiate between healthy and diseased tissues can lead to incorrect diagnoses. Instance segmentation addresses these challenges by not only recognizing objects in an image but also delineating each object instance, regardless of its class. It goes beyond mere detection, providing pixel-level precision in outlining each object that enables a deeper understanding of complex visual scenes. This guide covers: Instance segmentation techniques like single-shot instance segmentation and transformer- and detection-based methods. How instance segmentation compares to other types of image segmentation techniques. Instance segmentation model architectures like U-Net and Mask R-CNN. Practical applications of instance segmentation in fields like medical imaging and autonomous vehicles. Challenges of applying instance segmentation and the corresponding solutions. Let’s get into it! Types of Image Segmentation There are three types of image segmentation: Instance segmentation Panoptic segmentation Semantic segmentation Each type serves a distinct purpose in computer vision, offering varying levels of granularity in the analysis and understanding of visual content. Instance Segmentation Instance segmentation involves precisely identifying and delineating individual objects within an image. Unlike other segmentation types, it assigns a unique label to each pixel, providing a detailed understanding of the distinct instances present in the scene. Semantic Segmentation Semantic segmentation involves classifying each pixel in an image into predefined categories. The goal is to understand the general context of the scene, assigning labels to regions based on their shared semantic meaning. Panoptic Segmentation Panoptic segmentation is a holistic approach that unifies instance and semantic segmentation. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of both the individual objects in the scene (instance segmentation) and the scene's overall semantic composition. Instance Segmentation Techniques Instance segmentation is a computer vision task that involves identifying and delineating individual objects within an image while assigning a unique label to each pixel. This section will explore techniques employed in instance segmentation, including: Single-shot instance segmentation. Transformer-based methods. Detection-based instance segmentation. Single-Shot Instance Segmentation Single-shot instance segmentation methods aim to efficiently detect and segment objects in a single pass through the neural network. These approaches are designed for real-time applications where speed is crucial. A notable example is YOLACT (You Only Look At Coefficients) which performs object detection and segmentation in a single network pass.  Transformer-Based Methods Transformers excel at capturing long-range dependencies in data, making them suitable for tasks requiring global context understanding. Models like DETR (DEtection TRansformer) and its extensions apply the transformer architecture to this task. They use self-attention mechanisms to capture intricate relationships between pixels and improve segmentation accuracy. Detection-Based Instance Segmentation Detection-based instance segmentation methods integrate object detection and segmentation into a unified framework. These methods use the output of an object detector to identify regions of interest, and then a segmentation module to precisely delineate object boundaries. This category includes two-stage methods like Mask R-CNN, which first generate bounding boxes for objects and thn perform segmentation. Next, we'll delve into the machine learning models underlying these techniques, discussing their architecture and how they contribute to image segmentation. Understanding Segmentation Models: U-Net and Mask R-CNN Several models have become prominent in image segmentation due to their effectiveness and precision. U-Net and Mask R-CNN stand out for their unique contributions to the field. U-Net Architecture Originally designed for medical image segmentation, the U-Net architecture has become synonymous with success in various image segmentation tasks. Its architecture is unique because it has a symmetric expanding pathway that lets it get accurate location and context information from the contracting pathway. This structure allows U-Net to deliver high accuracy, even with fewer training samples, making it a preferred choice for biomedical image segmentation. U-Net, renowned for its efficacy in biomedical image segmentation, stands out due to its sophisticated architecture, which has been instrumental in advancing medical image computing and computer-assisted intervention. Developed by Olaf Ronneberger, Philipp Fischer, and Thomas Brox, this convolutional network architecture has significantly improved image segmentation, particularly in medical imaging. U-Net Architecture Core components of U-Net architecture The U-Net architecture comprises a contracting path to capture context and a symmetric expanding path for precise localization. Here's a breakdown of its structure: Contracting path: The contracting part of the network follows the typical convolutional network architecture. It consists of repeated application of two 3x3 convolutions, each followed by a rectified linear unit (ReLU) and a 2x2 max pooling operation with stride 2 for downsampling. With each downsampling step, the number of feature channels is doubled. Bottleneck: After the contracting path, the network transitions to a bottleneck, where the process is slightly different. Here, the network applies two 3x3 convolutions, each followed by a ReLU. However, it skips the max-pooling step.  This area processes the most abstract representations of the input data. Expanding Path: The expanding part of the network performs an up-convolution (transposed convolution) and concatenates with the high-resolution features from the contracting path through skip connections. This step is crucial as it allows the network to use information from the image to localize precisely. Similar to the contracting path, this section applies two 3x3 convolutions, each followed by a ReLU after each up-convolution. Final Layer: The final layer of the network is a 1x1 convolution used to map each 64-component feature vector to the desired number of classes. Unique features of U-Net Feature Concatenation: Unlike standard fully convolutional networks, U-Net employs feature concatenation (skip connections) between the downsampling and upsampling parts of the network. This technique allows the network to use the feature map from the contracting path and combine it with the output of the transposed convolution. This process helps the network to better localize and use the context. Overlap-Tile Strategy: U-Net uses an overlap-tile strategy for seamless segmentation of larger images. This strategy is necessary due to the loss of border pixels in every convolution. U-Net uses a mirroring strategy to predict the pixels in the border region of the image, allowing the network to process images larger than their input size—a common requirement in medical imaging. Weighting Loss Function: U-Net modifies the standard cross-entropy loss function with a weighting map, emphasizing the border pixels of the segmented objects. This modification helps the network learn the boundaries of the objects more effectively, leading to more precise segmentation. With its innovative use of contracting and expanding paths, U-Net's architecture has set a new standard in medical image segmentation. Its ability to train effectively on minimal data and its precise localization and context understanding make it highly suitable for biomedical applications where both the objects' context and accurate localization are critical. Mask R-CNN Architecture An extension of the Faster R-CNN, Mask R-CNN, has set new standards for instance segmentation. It builds on its predecessor by adding a branch for predicting segmentation masks on detected objects, operating in parallel with the existing branch for bounding box recognition. This dual functionality allows Mask R-CNN to detect objects and precisely segregate them within the image, making it invaluable for tasks requiring detailed object understanding. The Mask R-CNN framework has revolutionized the field of computer vision, offering improved accuracy and efficiency in tasks like instance segmentation. It builds on the successes of previous models, like Faster R-CNN, by adding a parallel branch for predicting segmentation masks.   Mask RCNN Architecture Core components of Mask R-CNN Here are the core components of Mask R-CNN: Backbone: The backbone is the initial feature extraction stage. In Mask R-CNN, this is typically a deep ResNet architecture. The backbone is responsible for processing the input image and generating a rich feature map representing the underlying visual content. Region Proposal Network (RPN): The RPN generates potential object regions (proposals) within the feature map. It does this efficiently by scanning the feature map with a set of reference boxes (anchors) and using a lightweight neural network to score each anchor's likelihood of containing an object. RoI Align: One of the key innovations in Mask R-CNN is the RoI Align layer, which fixes the misalignment issue caused by the RoI Pooling process used in previous models. It does this by preserving the exact spatial locations of the features, leading to more accurate mask predictions. Classification and Bounding Box Regression: Similar to its predecessors, Mask R-CNN uses the features within each proposed region to classify the object and refine its bounding box. It uses a fully connected network to output a class label and bounding box coordinates. Mask Prediction: This sets Mask R-CNN apart. In addition to the classification and bounding box outputs, there's a parallel branch for mask prediction. This branch is a small Fully Convolutional Network (FCN) that outputs a binary mask for each RoI. Unique characteristics and advancements Parallel Predictions: Mask R-CNN makes mask predictions parallel with the classification and bounding box regressions, allowing it to be relatively fast and efficient despite the additional output. Improved Accuracy: The introduction of RoI Align significantly improves the accuracy of the segmentation masks by eliminating the harsh quantization of RoI Pooling, leading to finer-grained alignments. Versatility: Mask R-CNN is versatile and can be used for various tasks, including object detection, instance segmentation, and human pose estimation. It's particularly powerful in scenarios requiring precise segmentation and localization of objects. Training and Inference: Mask R-CNN maintains a balance between performance and speed, making it suitable for research and production environments. The model can be trained end-to-end with a multi-task loss. The Mask R-CNN architecture has been instrumental in pushing the boundaries of what's possible in image-based tasks, particularly in instance segmentation. Its design reflects a deeper understanding of the challenges of these tasks, introducing key innovations that have since become standard in the field. Practical Applications of Instance Segmentation Instance segmentation, a nuanced approach within the computer vision domain, has revolutionized several industries by enabling more precise and detailed image analysis. Below, we delve into how this technology is making significant strides in medical imaging and autonomous vehicle systems. Medical Imaging and Healthcare In medical imaging, instance segmentation is pivotal in enhancing diagnostic precision. Creating clear boundaries at a granular level for the detailed study of medical images is crucial in identifying and diagnosing various health conditions. Medical Imaging within Encord Annotate’s DICOM Editor Precision in Diagnosis: Instance segmentation facilitates the detailed separation of structures in medical images, which is crucial for accurate diagnoses. For instance, segmenting individual structures can help radiologists precisely locate tumors, fractures, or other anomalies. This precision is vital, especially in complex fields such as oncology, neurology, and various surgical specializations. Case Studies: One notable application is in tumor detection and analysis. By employing instance segmentation, medical professionals can identify the presence of a tumor and understand its shape, size, and texture, which are critical factors in deciding the course of treatment. Similarly, in histopathology, instance segmentation helps in the detailed analysis of tissue samples, enabling pathologists to identify abnormal cell structures indicative of conditions such as cancer. Autonomous Vehicles and Advanced Driving Assistance Systems The advent of autonomous vehicles has underscored the need for advanced computer vision technologies, with instance segmentation being exceptionally crucial due to its ability to process complex visual environments in real-time. Real-time Processing Requirements: For autonomous vehicles, navigating through traffic and varying environmental conditions requires a system capable of real-time analysis. Instance segmentation contributes to this by enabling the vehicle's system to distinguish and identify individual objects on the road, such as other vehicles, pedestrians, and traffic signs. This detailed understanding is crucial for real-time decision-making and manoeuvring. Safety Enhancements Through Computer Vision: By providing detailed and precise image analysis, instance segmentation helps increase the safety features of autonomous driving systems. For example, suppose a pedestrian suddenly crosses the road. In that case, the system can accurately segment and identify the pedestrian as a separate entity, triggering an immediate response such as braking or swerving to avoid a collision.  This precision in identifying and reacting to various road elements significantly contributes to the safety and efficiency of autonomous transportation systems. Instance Segmentation in ADAS Challenges and Solutions in Instance Segmentation Instance segmentation, while a powerful tool in computer vision, has its challenges. These obstacles often arise from the intricate nature of the task, which requires high precision in distinguishing and segmenting individual objects within an image, particularly when these objects overlap or are closely intertwined. Below, we explore some of these challenges and the innovative solutions being developed to overcome them. Handling Overlapping Instances One of the primary challenges in instance segmentation is managing scenes where objects overlap, making it difficult to discern boundaries. This complexity is compounded when dealing with objects of the same class, as the model must detect each object and provide a unique segmentation mask for each instance. The Role of Intersection over Union (IoU): IoU is a critical metric that provides a quantitative measure of the overlap between the predicted segmentation and the ground truth. By optimizing towards a higher IoU, models can improve their accuracy in distinguishing between separate objects, even when closely packed or overlapping. Techniques for Accurate Boundary Detection: Several strategies are employed to enhance boundary detection. One approach involves using edge detection algorithms as an auxiliary task to help the model better understand where one object ends and another begins. Additionally, employing more sophisticated loss functions that penalize inaccuracies in boundary prediction can drive the model to be more precise in its segmentation. Addressing Sparse and Crowded Scenes The instance segmentation models' quality heavily relies on the training data, which must be meticulously annotated to distinguish between different objects clearly. The Importance of Ground Truth in Training Models: For a model to understand the complex task of instance segmentation, it requires a solid foundation of 'ground truth' data. These images have been accurately annotated to indicate the exact boundaries of objects. The model uses this data during training, comparing its predictions against these ground truths to learn and improve. Time and Resource Constraints for Dataset Curation: Creating such datasets requires significant time and resources. Solutions to this challenge include using semi-automated annotation tools that leverage AI to speed up the process of employing data augmentation techniques to expand the dataset artificially. Furthermore, there's a growing trend towards collaborative annotation projects and sharing datasets within the research community to alleviate this burden. The field of instance segmentation will continue to grow by tackling these problems head-on and coming up with new ways to build models and process data. This will make the technology more useful in real-world applications. Instance Segmentation: Key Takeaways As we conclude the complete guide to instance segmentation, it's crucial to synthesize the fundamental insights that characterize this intricate niche within the broader landscape of computer vision and deep learning. Recap of Core Concepts: At its core, instance segmentation is an advanced technique within image segmentation. It meticulously identifies, segments, and distinguishes between individual objects in an input image, even those within the same class label.  Instance segmentation across industries: Instance segmentation is a key part of medical imaging. It helps practitioners make accurate diagnoses and plan effective treatments by making it easier to make decisions in real-time through better image analysis. Integrating instance segmentation into various industries underscores its versatility, from navigating self-driving cars through complex environments to optimizing retail operations through advanced computer vision tasks.