# ColDE: A Depth Estimation Framework for Colonoscopy Reconstruction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2111.10371 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.10371/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 35 of its 52 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 Nov 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 35)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [The Cityscapes Dataset for Semantic Urban Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.01685/) (2016)
- [Unsupervised Monocular Depth Estimation with Left-Right Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.03677/) (2016)
- [Unsupervised Learning of Depth and Ego-Motion from Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.07813/) (2017)
- [MegaDepth: Learning Single-View Depth Prediction from Internet Photos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.00607/) (2018)
- [Deep Ordinal Regression Network for Monocular Depth Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.02446/) (2018)
- [Direct Sparse Odometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.02565/) (2016)
- [Predicting Depth, Surface Normals and Semantic Labels with a Common Multi-Scale Convolutional Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.4734/) (2014)
- [3D Packing for Self-Supervised Monocular Depth Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.02693/) (2019)
- [GeoNet: Unsupervised Learning of Dense Depth, Optical Flow and Camera Pose](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.02276/) (2018)
- [Unsupervised Scale-consistent Depth and Ego-motion Learning from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.10553/) (2019)
- [Competitive Collaboration: Joint Unsupervised Learning of Depth, Camera Motion, Optical Flow and Motion Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.09806/) (2018)
- [Unsupervised Learning of Depth and Ego-Motion from Monocular Video Using 3D Geometric Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05522/) (2018)
- [Unsupervised Learning of Monocular Depth Estimation and Visual Odometry with Deep Feature Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.03893/) (2018)
- [Depth Prediction Without the Sensors: Leveraging Structure for Unsupervised Learning from Monocular Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.06152/) (2018)
- [Learning Depth from Monocular Videos using Direct Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.00175/) (2017)
- [DF-Net: Unsupervised Joint Learning of Depth and Flow using Cross-Task Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.01649/) (2018)
- [Semantically-Guided Representation Learning for Self-Supervised Monocular Depth](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.12319/) (2020)
- [HR-Depth: High Resolution Self-Supervised Monocular Depth Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.07356/) (2020)
- [Semi-Supervised Deep Learning for Monocular Depth Map Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.02706/) (2017)
- [SfM-Net: Learning of Structure and Motion from Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.07804/) (2017)
- [Deep Virtual Stereo Odometry: Leveraging Deep Depth Prediction for Monocular Direct Sparse Odometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.02570/) (2018)
- [Unsupervised Monocular Depth Learning in Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.16404/) (2020)
- [Unsupervised Reverse Domain Adaptation for Synthetic Medical Images via Adversarial Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.06606/) (2017)
- [Recurrent Neural Network for (Un-)supervised Learning of Monocular VideoVisual Odometry and Depth](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.07087/) (2019)
- [LEGO: Learning Edge with Geometry all at Once by Watching Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.05648/) (2018)
- [Learning Monocular Visual Odometry via Self-Supervised Long-Term Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.10983/) (2020)
- [MonoIndoor: Towards Good Practice of Self-Supervised Monocular Depth Estimation for Indoor Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.12429/) (2021)
- [StructDepth: Leveraging the structural regularities for self-supervised indoor depth estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.08574/) (2021)
- [Augmenting Colonoscopy using Extended and Directional CycleGAN for Lossy Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.12473/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [SENDD: Sparse Efficient Neural Depth and Deformation for Tissue Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06477/) (2023)
- [Leveraging Near-Field Lighting for Monocular Depth Estimation from Endoscopy Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17915/) (2024)
- [Multi-task learning with cross-task consistency for improved depth estimation in colonoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.18664/) (2023)
- [C3Fusion: Consistent Contrastive Colon Fusion, Towards Deep SLAM in Colonoscopy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.01961/) (2022)
- [NFL-BA: Near-Field Light Bundle Adjustment for SLAM in Dynamic Lighting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.13176/) (2024)
- [Combinative Matching for Geometric Shape Assembly](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.09780/) (2025)
- [ToDER: Towards Colonoscopy Depth Estimation and Reconstruction with Geometry Constraint Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.16508/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

One of the key elements of reconstructing a 3D mesh from a monocular video is generating every frame's depth map. However, in the application of colonoscopy video reconstruction, producing good-quality depth estimation is challenging. Neural networks can be easily fooled by photometric distractions or fail to capture the complex shape of the colon surface, predicting defective shapes that result in broken meshes. Aiming to fundamentally improve the depth estimation quality for colonoscopy 3D reconstruction, in this work we have designed a set of training losses to deal with the special challenges of colonoscopy data. For better training, a set of geometric consistency objectives was developed, using both depth and surface normal information. Also, the classic photometric loss was extended with feature matching to compensate for illumination noise. With the training losses powerful enough, our self-supervised framework named ColDE is able to produce better depth maps of colonoscopy data as compared to the previous work utilizing prior depth knowledge. Used in reconstruction, our network is able to reconstruct good-quality colon meshes in real-time without any post-processing, making it the first to be clinically applicable.