# Forward Compatible Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.06953 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.06953/

## Key facts

- Cited by 127 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 42 of its 82 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Mar 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 42)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [Distilling the Knowledge in a Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.02531/) (2015)
- [ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.0575/) (2014)
- [mixup: Beyond Empirical Risk Minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.09412/) (2017)
- [Model-Agnostic Meta-Learning for Fast Adaptation of Deep Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.03400/) (2017)
- [Overcoming catastrophic forgetting in neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.00796/) (2016)
- [Prototypical Networks for Few-shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.05175/) (2017)
- [CutMix: Regularization Strategy to Train Strong Classifiers with Localizable Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.04899/) (2019)
- [Learning without Forgetting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.09282/) (2016)
- [iCaRL: Incremental Classifier and Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07725/) (2016)
- [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)
- [Memory Aware Synapses: Learning what (not) to forget](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.09601/) (2017)
- [EfficientDet: Scalable and Efficient Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.09070/) (2019)
- [On First-Order Meta-Learning Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.02999/) (2018)
- [Large Scale Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.13260/) (2019)
- [A Closer Look at Few-shot Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.04232/) (2019)
- [End-to-End Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.09536/) (2018)
- [DER: Dynamically Expandable Representation for Class Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.16788/) (2021)
- [How to train your MAML](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.09502/) (2018)
- [Large-Margin Softmax Loss for Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.02295/) (2016)
- [Maintaining Discrimination and Fairness in Class Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.07053/) (2019)
- [Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.10956/) (2020)
- [Few-Shot Incremental Learning with Continually Evolved Classifiers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.03047/) (2021)
- [Negative Margin Matters: Understanding Margin in Few-shot Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.12060/) (2020)
- [Learning Placeholders for Open-Set Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.15086/) (2021)
- [Semantic-aware Knowledge Distillation for Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.04059/) (2021)
- [Self-Promoted Prototype Refinement for Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.08918/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 127)

- [LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03310/) (2023)
- [A Comprehensive Survey of Continual Learning: Theory, Method and Application](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.00487/) (2023)
- [FOSTER: Feature Boosting and Compression for Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.04662/) (2022)
- [Class-Incremental Learning: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.03648/) (2023)
- [Revisiting Class-Incremental Learning with Pre-Trained Models: Generalizability and Adaptivity are All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.07338/) (2023)
- [A Model or 603 Exemplars: Towards Memory-Efficient Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.13218/) (2022)
- [Neural Collapse Inspired Feature-Classifier Alignment for Few-Shot Class Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.03004/) (2023)
- [Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning by Sampling Multi-Phase Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.17030/) (2022)
- [FeCAM: Exploiting the Heterogeneity of Class Distributions in Exemplar-Free Continual Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.14062/) (2023)
- [Learning with Fantasy: Semantic-Aware Virtual Contrastive Constraint for Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.00426/) (2023)
- [A Survey on Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08130/) (2023)
- [First Session Adaptation: A Strong Replay-Free Baseline for Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13199/) (2023)
- [Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning via Training-Free Prototype Calibration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05229/) (2023)
- [Margin-Based Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning with Class-Level Overfitting Mitigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.04524/) (2022)
- [Pre-trained Vision and Language Transformers Are Few-Shot Incremental Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.02117/) (2024)
- [Memorizing Complementation Network for Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.05610/) (2022)
- [OrCo: Towards Better Generalization via Orthogonality and Contrast for Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.18550/) (2024)
- [Wings: Learning Multimodal LLMs without Text-only Forgetting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.03496/) (2024)
- [Steering Prototypes with Prompt-tuning for Rehearsal-free Continual Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09447/) (2023)
- [Multimodal Parameter-Efficient Few-Shot Class Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04751/) (2023)
- [Compositional Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17022/) (2024)
- [Uncertainty-Aware Distillation for Semi-Supervised Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.09964/) (2023)
- [Few-Shot Class Incremental Learning with Attention-Aware Self-Adaptive Prompt](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.09857/) (2024)
- [Neural Collapse Terminus: A Unified Solution for Class Incremental Learning and Its Variants](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.01746/) (2023)
- [Rethinking Few-shot Class-incremental Learning: Learning from Yourself](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.07468/) (2024)
- [Few-shot Class-incremental Learning for 3D Point Cloud Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.15225/) (2022)
- [Non-Exemplar Online Class-incremental Continual Learning via Dual-prototype Self-augment and Refinement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.10891/) (2023)
- [Rethinking Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning with Open-Set Hypothesis in Hyperbolic Geometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.09963/) (2022)
- [Learnable Distribution Calibration for Few-Shot Class-Incremental Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.00232/) (2022)
- [Inherit with Distillation and Evolve with Contrast: Exploring Class Incremental Semantic Segmentation Without Exemplar Memory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15413/) (2023)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Novel classes frequently arise in our dynamically changing world, e.g., new users in the authentication system, and a machine learning model should recognize new classes without forgetting old ones. This scenario becomes more challenging when new class instances are insufficient, which is called few-shot class-incremental learning (FSCIL). Current methods handle incremental learning retrospectively by making the updated model similar to the old one. By contrast, we suggest learning prospectively to prepare for future updates, and propose ForwArd Compatible Training (FACT) for FSCIL. Forward compatibility requires future new classes to be easily incorporated into the current model based on the current stage data, and we seek to realize it by reserving embedding space for future new classes. In detail, we assign virtual prototypes to squeeze the embedding of known classes and reserve for new ones. Besides, we forecast possible new classes and prepare for the updating process. The virtual prototypes allow the model to accept possible updates in the future, which act as proxies scattered among embedding space to build a stronger classifier during inference. FACT efficiently incorporates new classes with forward compatibility and meanwhile resists forgetting of old ones. Extensive experiments validate FACT's state-of-the-art performance. Code is available at: https://github.com/zhoudw-zdw/CVPR22-Fact