What is Panoptic Segmentation?
Panoptic segmentation combines the strengths of instance segmentation and semantic segmentation to provide a holistic view of the visual scene. Here’s a breakdown of these three concepts:
- Semantic Segmentation
- Semantic segmentation involves classifying each pixel in an image into a predefined category. For example, in a street scene, all pixels belonging to cars are labeled as ‘car’, all pixels belonging to roads are labeled as ‘road’, and so on. However, it does not distinguish between different instances of the same category. In other words, it treats all cars as a single entity without distinguishing individual cars.
- Instance Segmentation
- Instance segmentation goes a step further by not only classifying each pixel but also distinguishing between different instances of the same category. This means that in the same street scene, instance segmentation would label each car individually, allowing for the identification of specific objects within the same category.
- Panoptic Segmentation
- Panoptic segmentation unifies the two approaches mentioned above. It assigns a unique label to every pixel in the image, where each label encodes both the semantic category and the instance identity. This means that it not only identifies what each pixel represents (semantic information) but also which specific object (instance) it belongs to. As a result, panoptic segmentation provides a complete and detailed understanding of the visual scene.
What is Panoptic Segmentation?
Panoptic segmentation is a revolutionary method in computer vision that combines semantic segmentation and instance segmentation to offer a holistic insight into visual scenes. This article will explore the operating principles, essential elements, and wide-ranging uses of panoptic segmentation, showcasing its revolutionary influence on different industries and research areas.
Table of Content
- What is Panoptic Segmentation?
- Importance of Panoptic Segmentation
- How Panoptic Segmentation Works
- Network Architecture
- Loss Functions
- EfficientPS Architecture
- Step 1: Shared Backbone
- Step 2: Two-Way Feature Pyramid Network (FPN)
- Step 3: Instance and Semantic Heads
- Step 4: Panoptic Fusion Module
- Addressing Challenges in Panoptic Segmentation
- Applications of Panoptic Segmentation
- 1. Autonomous Driving
- 2. Robotics
- 3. Surveillance and Security
- 4. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
- 5. Medical Imaging
- Future Directions : Panoptic Segmentation
- FQAs on Panoptic Segmentation