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In semantic segmentation, training data down-sampling is commonly performed due to limited resources, the need to adapt image size to the model input, or improve data augmentation. This down-sampling typically employs different strategies for the image data and the annotated labels. Such discrepancy leads to mismatches between the down-sampled color and label images. Hence, the training performance significantly decreases as the down-sampling factor increases. In this paper, we bring together the down-sampling strategies for the image data and the training labels. To that aim, we propose a novel framework for label down-sampling via soft-labeling that better conserves label information after down-sampling. Therefore, fully aligning soft-labels with image data to keep the distribution of the sampled pixels. This proposal also produces reliable annotations for under-represented semantic classes. Altogether, it allows training competitive models at lower resolutions. Experiments show that the proposal outperforms other down-sampling strategies. Moreover, state-of-the-art performance is achieved for reference benchmarks, but employing significantly less computational resources than foremost approaches. This proposal enables competitive research for semantic segmentation under resource constraints.

How would you fairly evaluate two multi-object tracking algorithms (i.e. trackers), each one employing a different object detector? Detectors keep improving, thus trackers can make less effort to estimate object states over time. Is it then fair to compare a new tracker employing a new detector with another tracker using an old detector? In this paper, we propose a novel performance measure, named Tracking Effort Measure (TEM), to evaluate trackers that use different detectors. TEM estimates the improvement that the tracker does with respect to its input data (i.e. detections) at frame level (intra-frame complexity) and sequence level (inter-frame complexity). We evaluate TEM over well-known datasets, four trackers and eight detection sets. Results show that, unlike conventional tracking evaluation measures, TEM can quantify the effort done by the tracker with a reduced correlation on the input detections. Its implementation is publicly available online at https://github.com/vpulab/MOT-evaluation., Comment: This paper was accepted at IEEE International Conference on Advanced Video and Signal Based Surveillance (AVSS)

Knowledge Distillation (KD) is a strategy for the definition of a set of transferability gangways to improve the efficiency of Convolutional Neural Networks. Feature-based Knowledge Distillation is a subfield of KD that relies on intermediate network representations, either unaltered or depth-reduced via maximum activation maps, as the source knowledge. In this paper, we propose and analyse the use of a 2D frequency transform of the activation maps before transferring them. We pose that\textemdash by using global image cues rather than pixel estimates, this strategy enhances knowledge transferability in tasks such as scene recognition, defined by strong spatial and contextual relationships between multiple and varied concepts. To validate the proposed method, an extensive evaluation of the state-of-the-art in scene recognition is presented. Experimental results provide strong evidences that the proposed strategy enables the student network to better focus on the relevant image areas learnt by the teacher network, hence leading to better descriptive features and higher transferred performance than every other state-of-the-art alternative. We publicly release the training and evaluation framework used along this paper at http://www-vpu.eps.uam.es/publications/DCTBasedKDForSceneRecognition., Comment: Preprint under review in TCSVT Journal