# Adaptive Superpixel for Active Learning in Semantic Segmentation

Source: [Adaptive Superpixel for Active Learning in Semantic Segmentation](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/68fa70581e209131cea4a6df>)

Collection index: [llms.txt](<https://www.sota2.com/research/llms.txt>)

Data updated: 2025-10-26T01:39:07.726Z

Authors: Hoyoung Kim, Minhyeon Oh, Sehyun Hwang, Suha Kwak, Jungseul Ok

Published: 2023-03-29T16:07:06.000Z

## Abstract

Learning semantic segmentation requires pixel-wise annotations, which can be time-consuming and expensive. To reduce the annotation cost, we propose a superpixel-based active learning (AL) framework, which collects a dominant label per superpixel instead. To be specific, it consists of adaptive superpixel and sieving mechanisms, fully dedicated to AL. At each round of AL, we adaptively merge neighboring pixels of similar learned features into superpixels. We then query a selected subset of these superpixels using an acquisition function assuming no uniform superpixel size. This approach is more efficient than existing methods, which rely only on innate features such as RGB color and assume uniform superpixel sizes. Obtaining a dominant label per superpixel drastically reduces annotators' burden as it requires fewer clicks. However, it inevitably introduces noisy annotations due to mismatches between superpixel and ground truth segmentation. To address this issue, we further devise a sieving mechanism that identifies and excludes potentially noisy annotations from learning. Our experiments on both Cityscapes and PASCAL VOC datasets demonstrate the efficacy of adaptive superpixel and sieving mechanisms.

## Recorded benchmark results

A research result applies to its stated dataset, split, metric and evaluation configuration. Compare like-for-like settings, preserve the metric's unit and direction, and distinguish paper-reported results from independent reproduction. The best result recorded here is not a claim of exhaustive, current global coverage.

## Original sources and implementation

[Original paper](<https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.16817>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.16817.pdf>)
