# CAM-Based Methods Can See through Walls Source: [CAM-Based Methods Can See through Walls]() Collection index: [llms.txt]() Data updated: 2025-10-26T02:59:03.375Z Authors: Magamed Taimeskhanov, Ronan Sicre, Damien Garreau Published: 2024-04-02T13:57:30.000Z ## Abstract CAM-based methods are widely-used post-hoc interpretability method that produce a saliency map to explain the decision of an image classification model. The saliency map highlights the important areas of the image relevant to the prediction. In this paper, we show that most of these methods can incorrectly attribute an important score to parts of the image that the model cannot see. We show that this phenomenon occurs both theoretically and experimentally. On the theory side, we analyze the behavior of GradCAM on a simple masked CNN model at initialization. Experimentally, we train a VGG-like model constrained to not use the lower part of the image and nevertheless observe positive scores in the unseen part of the image. This behavior is evaluated quantitatively on two new datasets. We believe that this is problematic, potentially leading to mis-interpretation of the model's behavior. ## 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]() [PDF]()