# MEIL-NeRF: Memory-Efficient Incremental Learning of Neural Radiance Fields

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.08328 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08328/

## Key facts

- Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 48 of its 65 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Dec 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 48)

- [Overcoming catastrophic forgetting in neural networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.00796/) (2016)
- [Instant Neural Graphics Primitives with a Multiresolution Hash Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05989/) (2022)
- [DeepSDF: Learning Continuous Signed Distance Functions for Shape Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05103/) (2019)
- [Learning without Forgetting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.09282/) (2016)
- [Implicit Neural Representations with Periodic Activation Functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09661/) (2020)
- [Fourier Features Let Networks Learn High Frequency Functions in Low Dimensional Domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10739/) (2020)
- [Occupancy Networks: Learning 3D Reconstruction in Function Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03828/) (2018)
- [Mip-NeRF 360: Unbounded Anti-Aliased Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.12077/) (2021)
- [Mip-NeRF: A Multiscale Representation for Anti-Aliasing Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13415/) (2021)
- [Plenoxels: Radiance Fields without Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05131/) (2021)
- [pixelNeRF: Neural Radiance Fields from One or Few Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.02190/) (2020)
- [NeRF in the Wild: Neural Radiance Fields for Unconstrained Photo Collections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.02268/) (2020)
- [Efficient Geometry-aware 3D Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.07945/) (2021)
- [Memory Aware Synapses: Learning what (not) to forget](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.09601/) (2017)
- [ORB-SLAM: a Versatile and Accurate Monocular SLAM System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1502.00956/) (2015)
- [Neural Sparse Voxel Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11571/) (2020)
- [The Replica Dataset: A Digital Replica of Indoor Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.05797/) (2019)
- [PackNet: Adding Multiple Tasks to a Single Network by Iterative Pruning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.05769/) (2017)
- [Riemannian Walk for Incremental Learning: Understanding Forgetting and Intransigence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.10112/) (2018)
- [MVSNeRF: Fast Generalizable Radiance Field Reconstruction from Multi-View Stereo](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.15595/) (2021)
- [pi-GAN: Periodic Implicit Generative Adversarial Networks for 3D-Aware Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.00926/) (2020)
- [IBRNet: Learning Multi-View Image-Based Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.13090/) (2021)
- [KiloNeRF: Speeding up Neural Radiance Fields with Thousands of Tiny MLPs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13744/) (2021)
- [UNISURF: Unifying Neural Implicit Surfaces and Radiance Fields for Multi-View Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10078/) (2021)
- [BARF: Bundle-Adjusting Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.06405/) (2021)
- [NICE-SLAM: Neural Implicit Scalable Encoding for SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.12130/) (2021)
- [Ref-NeRF: Structured View-Dependent Appearance for Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.03907/) (2021)
- [Neural Fields in Visual Computing and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11426/) (2021)
- [Be Your Own Teacher: Improve the Performance of Convolutional Neural Networks via Self Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.08094/) (2019)
- [iMAP: Implicit Mapping and Positioning in Real-Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.12352/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [CLNeRF: Continual Learning Meets NeRF](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.14816/) (2023)
- [Instant Continual Learning of Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.01811/) (2023)
- [SCARF: Scalable Continual Learning Framework for Memory-efficient Multiple Neural Radiance Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.04482/) (2024)
- [Multi-Layer Gaussian Splatting for Immersive Anatomy Visualization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.16978/) (2024)
- [IL-NeRF: Incremental Learning for Neural Radiance Fields with Camera Pose Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05748/) (2023)
- [CD-NGP: A Fast Scalable Continual Representation for Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.05166/) (2024)
- [Knowledge Distillation for Continual Learning of Biomedical Neural Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.21409/) (2025)
- [ChronoGS: Disentangling Invariants and Changes in Multi-Period Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.18794/) (2025)
- [RecurGS: Interactive Scene Modeling via Discrete-State Recurrent Gaussian Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.18386/) (2025)
- [DISORF: A Distributed Online 3D Reconstruction Framework for Mobile Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.00228/) (2024)
- [Incremental Multi-Scene Modeling via Continual Neural Graphics Primitives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.19903/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Hinged on the representation power of neural networks, neural radiance fields (NeRF) have recently emerged as one of the promising and widely applicable methods for 3D object and scene representation. However, NeRF faces challenges in practical applications, such as large-scale scenes and edge devices with a limited amount of memory, where data needs to be processed sequentially. Under such incremental learning scenarios, neural networks are known to suffer catastrophic forgetting: easily forgetting previously seen data after training with new data. We observe that previous incremental learning algorithms are limited by either low performance or memory scalability issues. As such, we develop a Memory-Efficient Incremental Learning algorithm for NeRF (MEIL-NeRF). MEIL-NeRF takes inspiration from NeRF itself in that a neural network can serve as a memory that provides the pixel RGB values, given rays as queries. Upon the motivation, our framework learns which rays to query NeRF to extract previous pixel values. The extracted pixel values are then used to train NeRF in a self-distillation manner to prevent catastrophic forgetting. As a result, MEIL-NeRF demonstrates constant memory consumption and competitive performance.