# Input Dropout for Spatially Aligned Modalities

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.02852 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.02852/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 7 Feb 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [MCVD: Masked Conditional Video Diffusion for Prediction, Generation, and Interpolation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.09853/) (2022)
- [On-the-fly Modulation for Balanced Multimodal Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11582/) (2024)
- [ModDrop++: A Dynamic Filter Network with Intra-subject Co-training for Multiple Sclerosis Lesion Segmentation with Missing Modalities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.04959/) (2022)
- [OmniFuser: Adaptive Multimodal Fusion for Service-Oriented Predictive Maintenance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.01320/) (2025)
- [Learning Multimodal Sensor Fusion with JEPA Representations for Breathing Activity and Pose Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.15891/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Computer vision datasets containing multiple modalities such as color, depth, and thermal properties are now commonly accessible and useful for solving a wide array of challenging tasks. However, deploying multi-sensor heads is not possible in many scenarios. As such many practical solutions tend to be based on simpler sensors, mostly for cost, simplicity and robustness considerations. In this work, we propose a training methodology to take advantage of these additional modalities available in datasets, even if they are not available at test time. By assuming that the modalities have a strong spatial correlation, we propose Input Dropout, a simple technique that consists in stochastic hiding of one or many input modalities at training time, while using only the canonical (e.g. RGB) modalities at test time. We demonstrate that Input Dropout trivially combines with existing deep convolutional architectures, and improves their performance on a wide range of computer vision tasks such as dehazing, 6-DOF object tracking, pedestrian detection and object classification.