# Exploring Category-correlated Feature for Few-shot Image Classification

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2112.07224 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07224/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 33 of its 44 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Dec 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.0575/) (2014)
- [Momentum Contrast for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05722/) (2019)
- [Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning for Fast Adaptation of Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.03400/) (2017)
- [Bootstrap your own latent: A new approach to self-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.07733/) (2020)
- [Distributed Representations of Words and Phrases and their Compositionality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1310.4546/) (2013)
- [Prototypical Networks for Few-shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.05175/) (2017)
- [Matching Networks for One Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.04080/) (2016)
- [Learning to Compare: Relation Network for Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.06025/) (2017)
- [A Closer Look at Few-shot Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.04232/) (2019)
- [Meta-Learning with Latent Embedding Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.05960/) (2018)
- [Do Deep Nets Really Need to be Deep?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1312.6184/) (2013)
- [Meta-Learning with Differentiable Convex Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03758/) (2019)
- [Meta-Learning for Semi-Supervised Few-Shot Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.00676/) (2018)
- [A Baseline for Few-Shot Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.02729/) (2019)
- [Feature Generating Networks for Zero-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.00981/) (2017)
- [Probabilistic Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.02817/) (2018)
- [Cross Attention Network for Few-shot Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07677/) (2019)
- [Low-Shot Learning from Imaginary Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.05401/) (2018)
- [Free Lunch for Few-shot Learning: Distribution Calibration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.06395/) (2021)
- [f-VAEGAN-D2: A Feature Generating Framework for Any-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.10132/) (2019)
- [Charting the Right Manifold: Manifold Mixup for Few-shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.12087/) (2019)
- [Negative Margin Matters: Understanding Margin in Few-shot Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.12060/) (2020)
- [Prototype Rectification for Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.10713/) (2019)
- [Delta-encoder: an effective sample synthesis method for few-shot object recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.04734/) (2018)
- [Multi-level Semantic Feature Augmentation for One-shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.05298/) (2018)
- [Exploring Complementary Strengths of Invariant and Equivariant Representations for Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.01315/) (2021)
- [Prototype Completion with Primitive Knowledge for Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.04960/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Channel Importance Matters in Few-Shot Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08126/) (2022)
- [Alleviating the Sample Selection Bias in Few-shot Learning by Removing Projection to the Centroid](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.16834/) (2022)
- [From Channel Bias to Feature Redundancy: Uncovering the "Less is More" Principle in Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03843/) (2023)
- [Few-shot Classification via Ensemble Learning with Multi-Order Statistics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.00454/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Few-shot classification aims to adapt classifiers to novel classes with a few training samples. However, the insufficiency of training data may cause a biased estimation of feature distribution in a certain class. To alleviate this problem, we present a simple yet effective feature rectification method by exploring the category correlation between novel and base classes as the prior knowledge. We explicitly capture such correlation by mapping features into a latent vector with dimension matching the number of base classes, treating it as the logarithm probability of the feature over base classes. Based on this latent vector, the rectified feature is directly constructed by a decoder, which we expect maintaining category-related information while removing other stochastic factors, and consequently being closer to its class centroid. Furthermore, by changing the temperature value in softmax, we can re-balance the feature rectification and reconstruction for better performance. Our method is generic, flexible and agnostic to any feature extractor and classifier, readily to be embedded into existing FSL approaches. Experiments verify that our method is capable of rectifying biased features, especially when the feature is far from the class centroid. The proposed approach consistently obtains considerable performance gains on three widely used benchmarks, evaluated with different backbones and classifiers. The code will be made public.