FlowFeat: Pixel-Dense Embedding of Motion Profiles

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Araslanov, Nikita, Sonnweber, Anna, Cremers, Daniel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Araslanov, Nikita
Sonnweber, Anna
Cremers, Daniel
author_facet Araslanov, Nikita
Sonnweber, Anna
Cremers, Daniel
contents Dense and versatile image representations underpin the success of virtually all computer vision applications. However, state-of-the-art networks, such as transformers, produce low-resolution feature grids, which are suboptimal for dense prediction tasks. To address this limitation, we present FlowFeat, a high-resolution and multi-task feature representation. The key ingredient behind FlowFeat is a novel distillation technique that embeds a distribution of plausible apparent motions, or motion profiles. By leveraging optical flow networks and diverse video data, we develop an effective self-supervised training framework that statistically approximates the apparent motion. With its remarkable level of spatial detail, FlowFeat encodes a compelling degree of geometric and semantic cues while exhibiting high temporal consistency. Empirically, FlowFeat significantly enhances the representational power of five state-of-the-art encoders and alternative upsampling strategies across three dense tasks: video object segmentation, monocular depth estimation and semantic segmentation. Training FlowFeat is computationally inexpensive and robust to inaccurate flow estimation, remaining highly effective even when using unsupervised flow networks. Our work takes a step forward towards reliable and versatile dense image representations.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_07696
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle FlowFeat: Pixel-Dense Embedding of Motion Profiles
Araslanov, Nikita
Sonnweber, Anna
Cremers, Daniel
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Dense and versatile image representations underpin the success of virtually all computer vision applications. However, state-of-the-art networks, such as transformers, produce low-resolution feature grids, which are suboptimal for dense prediction tasks. To address this limitation, we present FlowFeat, a high-resolution and multi-task feature representation. The key ingredient behind FlowFeat is a novel distillation technique that embeds a distribution of plausible apparent motions, or motion profiles. By leveraging optical flow networks and diverse video data, we develop an effective self-supervised training framework that statistically approximates the apparent motion. With its remarkable level of spatial detail, FlowFeat encodes a compelling degree of geometric and semantic cues while exhibiting high temporal consistency. Empirically, FlowFeat significantly enhances the representational power of five state-of-the-art encoders and alternative upsampling strategies across three dense tasks: video object segmentation, monocular depth estimation and semantic segmentation. Training FlowFeat is computationally inexpensive and robust to inaccurate flow estimation, remaining highly effective even when using unsupervised flow networks. Our work takes a step forward towards reliable and versatile dense image representations.
title FlowFeat: Pixel-Dense Embedding of Motion Profiles
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.07696