# Controlling False Positives in Image Segmentation via Conformal Prediction

Source: [Controlling False Positives in Image Segmentation via Conformal Prediction](<https://www.sota2.com/research/paper/691ea07fd6b0dd334292df3a>)

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

Data updated: 2025-11-21T05:03:03.263Z

Authors: Luca Mossina, Corentin Friedrich

Published: 2025-11-19T13:02:50.000Z

## Abstract

Reliable semantic segmentation is essential for clinical decision making, yet deep models rarely provide explicit statistical guarantees on their errors. We introduce a simple post-hoc framework that constructs confidence masks with distribution-free, image-level control of false-positive predictions. Given any pretrained segmentation model, we define a nested family of shrunken masks obtained either by increasing the score threshold or by applying morphological erosion. A labeled calibration set is used to select a single shrink parameter via conformal prediction, ensuring that, for new images that are exchangeable with the calibration data, the proportion of false positives retained in the confidence mask stays below a user-specified tolerance with high probability. The method is model-agnostic, requires no retraining, and provides finite-sample guarantees regardless of the underlying predictor. Experiments on a polyp-segmentation benchmark demonstrate target-level empirical validity. Our framework enables practical, risk-aware segmentation in settings where over-segmentation can have clinical consequences. Code at https://github.com/deel-ai-papers/conseco.

## 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/2511.15406>)

[PDF](<https://arxiv.org/pdf/2511.15406.pdf>)
