Towards Domain-Generalized Open-Vocabulary Object Detection: A Progressive Domain-invariant Cross-modal Alignment Method

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Xu, Xiaoran, Yang, Xiaoshan, Yang, Jiangang, Xu, Yifan, Liu, Jian, Xu, Changsheng
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Xu, Xiaoran
Yang, Xiaoshan
Yang, Jiangang
Xu, Yifan
Liu, Jian
Xu, Changsheng
author_facet Xu, Xiaoran
Yang, Xiaoshan
Yang, Jiangang
Xu, Yifan
Liu, Jian
Xu, Changsheng
contents Open-Vocabulary Object Detection (OVOD) has achieved remarkable success in generalizing to novel categories. However, this success often rests on the implicit assumption of domain stationarity. In this work, we provide a principled revisit of the OVOD paradigm, uncovering a fundamental vulnerability: the fragile coupling between visual manifolds and textual embeddings when distribution shifts occur. We first systematically formalize Domain-Generalized Open-Vocabulary Object Detection (DG-OVOD). Through empirical analysis, we demonstrate that visual shifts do not merely add noise; they cause a collapse of the latent cross-modal space where novel category visual signals detach from their semantic anchors. Motivated by these insights, we propose Progressive Domain-invariant Cross-modal Alignment (PICA). PICA departs from uniform training by introducing a multi-level ambiguity and signal strength curriculum. It builds adaptive pseudo-word prototypes, refined via sample confidence and visual consistency, to enforce invariant cross-domain modality alignment. Our findings suggest that OVOD's robustness to domain shifts is intrinsically linked to the stability of the latent cross-modal alignment space. Our work provides both a challenging benchmark and a new perspective on building truly generalizable open-vocabulary systems that extend beyond static laboratory conditions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_27556
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Domain-Generalized Open-Vocabulary Object Detection: A Progressive Domain-invariant Cross-modal Alignment Method
Xu, Xiaoran
Yang, Xiaoshan
Yang, Jiangang
Xu, Yifan
Liu, Jian
Xu, Changsheng
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Open-Vocabulary Object Detection (OVOD) has achieved remarkable success in generalizing to novel categories. However, this success often rests on the implicit assumption of domain stationarity. In this work, we provide a principled revisit of the OVOD paradigm, uncovering a fundamental vulnerability: the fragile coupling between visual manifolds and textual embeddings when distribution shifts occur. We first systematically formalize Domain-Generalized Open-Vocabulary Object Detection (DG-OVOD). Through empirical analysis, we demonstrate that visual shifts do not merely add noise; they cause a collapse of the latent cross-modal space where novel category visual signals detach from their semantic anchors. Motivated by these insights, we propose Progressive Domain-invariant Cross-modal Alignment (PICA). PICA departs from uniform training by introducing a multi-level ambiguity and signal strength curriculum. It builds adaptive pseudo-word prototypes, refined via sample confidence and visual consistency, to enforce invariant cross-domain modality alignment. Our findings suggest that OVOD's robustness to domain shifts is intrinsically linked to the stability of the latent cross-modal alignment space. Our work provides both a challenging benchmark and a new perspective on building truly generalizable open-vocabulary systems that extend beyond static laboratory conditions.
title Towards Domain-Generalized Open-Vocabulary Object Detection: A Progressive Domain-invariant Cross-modal Alignment Method
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.27556