Illicit object detection in X-ray imaging using deep learning techniques: A comparative evaluation

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Main Authors: Cani, Jorgen, Diou, Christos, Evangelatos, Spyridon, Argyriou, Vasileios, Radoglou-Grammatikis, Panagiotis, Sarigiannidis, Panagiotis, Varlamis, Iraklis, Papadopoulos, Georgios Th.
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Published: 2025
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author Cani, Jorgen
Diou, Christos
Evangelatos, Spyridon
Argyriou, Vasileios
Radoglou-Grammatikis, Panagiotis
Sarigiannidis, Panagiotis
Varlamis, Iraklis
Papadopoulos, Georgios Th.
author_facet Cani, Jorgen
Diou, Christos
Evangelatos, Spyridon
Argyriou, Vasileios
Radoglou-Grammatikis, Panagiotis
Sarigiannidis, Panagiotis
Varlamis, Iraklis
Papadopoulos, Georgios Th.
contents Automated X-ray inspection is crucial for efficient and unobtrusive security screening in various public settings. However, challenges such as object occlusion, variations in the physical properties of items, diversity in X-ray scanning devices, and limited training data hinder accurate and reliable detection of illicit items. Despite the large body of research in the field, reported experimental evaluations are often incomplete, with frequently conflicting outcomes. To shed light on the research landscape and facilitate further research, a systematic, detailed, and thorough comparative evaluation of recent Deep Learning (DL)-based methods for X-ray object detection is conducted. For this, a comprehensive evaluation framework is developed, composed of: a) Six recent, large-scale, and widely used public datasets for X-ray illicit item detection (OPIXray, CLCXray, SIXray, EDS, HiXray, and PIDray), b) Ten different state-of-the-art object detection schemes covering all main categories in the literature, including generic Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), custom CNN, generic transformer, and hybrid CNN-transformer architectures, and c) Various detection (mAP50 and mAP50:95) and time/computational-complexity (inference time (ms), parameter size (M), and computational load (GFLOPS)) metrics. A thorough analysis of the results leads to critical observations and insights, emphasizing key aspects such as: a) Overall behavior of the object detection schemes, b) Object-level detection performance, c) Dataset-specific observations, and d) Time efficiency and computational complexity analysis. To support reproducibility of the reported experimental results, the evaluation code and model weights are made publicly available at https://github.com/jgenc/xray-comparative-evaluation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_17508
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Illicit object detection in X-ray imaging using deep learning techniques: A comparative evaluation
Cani, Jorgen
Diou, Christos
Evangelatos, Spyridon
Argyriou, Vasileios
Radoglou-Grammatikis, Panagiotis
Sarigiannidis, Panagiotis
Varlamis, Iraklis
Papadopoulos, Georgios Th.
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Automated X-ray inspection is crucial for efficient and unobtrusive security screening in various public settings. However, challenges such as object occlusion, variations in the physical properties of items, diversity in X-ray scanning devices, and limited training data hinder accurate and reliable detection of illicit items. Despite the large body of research in the field, reported experimental evaluations are often incomplete, with frequently conflicting outcomes. To shed light on the research landscape and facilitate further research, a systematic, detailed, and thorough comparative evaluation of recent Deep Learning (DL)-based methods for X-ray object detection is conducted. For this, a comprehensive evaluation framework is developed, composed of: a) Six recent, large-scale, and widely used public datasets for X-ray illicit item detection (OPIXray, CLCXray, SIXray, EDS, HiXray, and PIDray), b) Ten different state-of-the-art object detection schemes covering all main categories in the literature, including generic Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), custom CNN, generic transformer, and hybrid CNN-transformer architectures, and c) Various detection (mAP50 and mAP50:95) and time/computational-complexity (inference time (ms), parameter size (M), and computational load (GFLOPS)) metrics. A thorough analysis of the results leads to critical observations and insights, emphasizing key aspects such as: a) Overall behavior of the object detection schemes, b) Object-level detection performance, c) Dataset-specific observations, and d) Time efficiency and computational complexity analysis. To support reproducibility of the reported experimental results, the evaluation code and model weights are made publicly available at https://github.com/jgenc/xray-comparative-evaluation.
title Illicit object detection in X-ray imaging using deep learning techniques: A comparative evaluation
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.17508