# Learning to Assign Orientations to Feature Points

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.04273 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.04273/

## Key facts

- Cited by 16 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 13 Nov 2015.

## Built on by (most cited first, 16 of 16)

- [A case for using rotation invariant features in state of the art feature matchers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.10144/) (2022)
- [Self-Supervised Equivariant Learning for Oriented Keypoint Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08613/) (2022)
- [Local Feature Matching Using Deep Learning: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.17592/) (2024)
- [Matching 2D Images in 3D: Metric Relative Pose from Metric Correspondences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.06337/) (2024)
- [ScaleNet: A Shallow Architecture for Scale Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.04846/) (2021)
- [Two-View Geometry Scoring Without Correspondences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.01596/) (2023)
- [AstroVision: Towards Autonomous Feature Detection and Description for Missions to Small Bodies Using Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.02053/) (2022)
- [SIFT Matching by Context Exposed](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09584/) (2021)
- [Self-Supervised Learning of Image Scale and Orientation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.07259/) (2022)
- [LFM-3D: Learnable Feature Matching Across Wide Baselines Using 3D Signals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12779/) (2023)
- [Image Matching by Bare Homography](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.08946/) (2023)
- [AffineGlue: Joint Matching and Robust Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15381/) (2023)
- [Image Matching Filtering and Refinement by Planes and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.09484/) (2024)
- [Self-supervised Interest Point Detection and Description for Fisheye and Perspective Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.01938/) (2023)
- [Image Feature Information Extraction for Interest Point Detection: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.07929/) (2021)
- [Efficient Feature Description for Small Body Relative Navigation using Binary Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.04985/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We show how to train a Convolutional Neural Network to assign a canonical orientation to feature points given an image patch centered on the feature point. Our method improves feature point matching upon the state-of-the art and can be used in conjunction with any existing rotation sensitive descriptors. To avoid the tedious and almost impossible task of finding a target orientation to learn, we propose to use Siamese networks which implicitly find the optimal orientations during training. We also propose a new type of activation function for Neural Networks that generalizes the popular ReLU, maxout, and PReLU activation functions. This novel activation performs better for our task. We validate the effectiveness of our method extensively with four existing datasets, including two non-planar datasets, as well as our own dataset. We show that we outperform the state-of-the-art without the need of retraining for each dataset.