# Panoramic Panoptic Segmentation: Towards Complete Surrounding Understanding via Unsupervised Contrastive Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.00868 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00868/

## Key facts

- Cited by 23 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 31 of its 38 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Mar 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 31)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Momentum Contrast for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05722/) (2019)
- [End-to-End Object Detection with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.12872/) (2020)
- [Mask R-CNN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06870/) (2017)
- [Feature Pyramid Networks for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.03144/) (2016)
- [Fully Convolutional Networks for Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.4038/) (2014)
- [The Cityscapes Dataset for Semantic Urban Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.01685/) (2016)
- [DeepLab: Semantic Image Segmentation with Deep Convolutional Nets, Atrous Convolution, and Fully Connected CRFs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.00915/) (2016)
- [Pyramid Scene Parsing Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.01105/) (2016)
- [Unsupervised Feature Learning via Non-Parametric Instance-level Discrimination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.01978/) (2018)
- [SegNet: A Deep Convolutional Encoder-Decoder Architecture for Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.00561/) (2015)
- [Dual Attention Network for Scene Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.02983/) (2018)
- [Panoptic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.00868/) (2018)
- [Panoptic Feature Pyramid Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.02446/) (2019)
- [Large Batch Training of Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.03888/) (2017)
- [Dense Contrastive Learning for Self-Supervised Visual Pre-Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.09157/) (2020)
- [Rethinking ImageNet Pre-training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.08883/) (2018)
- [MaX-DeepLab: End-to-End Panoptic Segmentation with Mask Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00759/) (2020)
- [Propagate Yourself: Exploring Pixel-Level Consistency for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.10043/) (2020)
- [ENet: A Deep Neural Network Architecture for Real-Time Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.02147/) (2016)
- [Exploring Cross-Image Pixel Contrast for Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.11939/) (2021)
- [Seamless Scene Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.01220/) (2019)
- [In Defense of Pre-trained ImageNet Architectures for Real-time Semantic Segmentation of Road-driving Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.08469/) (2019)
- [CGNet: A Light-weight Context Guided Network for Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.08201/) (2018)
- [Fully Convolutional Networks for Panoptic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00720/) (2020)
- [Orientation-aware Semantic Segmentation on Icosahedron Spheres](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.12849/) (2019)
- [Restricted Deformable Convolution based Road Scene Semantic Segmentation Using Surround View Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.00708/) (2018)
- [DS-PASS: Detail-Sensitive Panoramic Annular Semantic Segmentation through SwaftNet for Surrounding Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.07721/) (2019)
- [Camera-Lidar Integration: Probabilistic sensor fusion for semantic mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.05490/) (2020)
- [Single Network Panoptic Segmentation for Street Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.02678/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 23 of 23)

- [Bending Reality: Distortion-aware Transformers for Adapting to Panoramic Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.01452/) (2022)
- [Waymo Open Dataset: Panoramic Video Panoptic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.07704/) (2022)
- [Capturing Omni-Range Context for Omnidirectional Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.05687/) (2021)
- [Both Style and Distortion Matter: Dual-Path Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Panoramic Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.14360/) (2023)
- [Behind Every Domain There is a Shift: Adapting Distortion-aware Vision Transformers for Panoramic Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.11860/) (2022)
- [Local contrastive loss with pseudo-label based self-training for semi-supervised medical image segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.09645/) (2021)
- [Review on Panoramic Imaging and Its Applications in Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.05570/) (2022)
- [Deep Learning for Omnidirectional Vision: A Survey and New Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10468/) (2022)
- [DensePASS: Dense Panoramic Semantic Segmentation via Unsupervised Domain Adaptation with Attention-Augmented Context Exchange](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.06383/) (2021)
- [Transfer beyond the Field of View: Dense Panoramic Semantic Segmentation via Unsupervised Domain Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.11062/) (2021)
- [A Survey of Representation Learning, Optimization Strategies, and Applications for Omnidirectional Vision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.10444/) (2025)
- [Panoptic Segmentation: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.10250/) (2021)
- [Open Panoramic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02685/) (2024)
- [Panoramic Panoptic Segmentation: Insights Into Surrounding Parsing for Mobile Agents via Unsupervised Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.10711/) (2022)
- [Omnidirectional Multi-Object Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.04565/) (2025)
- [LF-VIO: A Visual-Inertial-Odometry Framework for Large Field-of-View Cameras with Negative Plane](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.12613/) (2022)
- [LF-VISLAM: A SLAM Framework for Large Field-of-View Cameras with Negative Imaging Plane on Mobile Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.05167/) (2022)
- [HIDA: Towards Holistic Indoor Understanding for the Visually Impaired via Semantic Instance Segmentation with a Wearable Solid-State LiDAR Sensor](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03180/) (2021)
- [OneBEV: Using One Panoramic Image for Bird's-Eye-View Semantic Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.13912/) (2024)
- [Occlusion-Aware Seamless Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02182/) (2024)
- [Deformable Mamba for Wide Field of View Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16481/) (2024)
- [FishDreamer: Towards Fisheye Semantic Completion via Unified Image Outpainting and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13842/) (2023)
- [Unlocking Constraints: Source-Free Occlusion-Aware Seamless Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.21198/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this work, we introduce panoramic panoptic segmentation as the most holistic scene understanding both in terms of field of view and image level understanding for standard camera based input. A complete surrounding understanding provides a maximum of information to the agent, which is essential for any intelligent vehicle in order to make informed decisions in a safety-critical dynamic environment such as real-world traffic. In order to overcome the lack of annotated panoramic images, we propose a framework which allows model training on standard pinhole images and transfers the learned features to a different domain. Using our proposed method, we manage to achieve significant improvements of over 5% measured in PQ over non-adapted models on our Wild Panoramic Panoptic Segmentation (WildPPS) dataset. We show that our proposed Panoramic Robust Feature (PRF) framework is not only suitable to improve performance on panoramic images but can be beneficial whenever model training and deployment are executed on data taken from different distributions. As an additional contribution, we publish WildPPS: The first panoramic panoptic image dataset to foster progress in surrounding perception.