# Diffusion in Diffusion: Cyclic One-Way Diffusion for Text-Vision-Conditioned Generation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08247 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.08247/

## Key facts

- Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 40 of its 44 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Jun 2023.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Image generation, text-to-image and editing](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/image-generation-text-to-image-and-editing/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 40)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Microsoft COCO: Common Objects in Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1405.0312/) (2014)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13456/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12598/) (2022)
- [Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.05543/) (2023)
- [Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12092/) (2021)
- [Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09672/) (2021)
- [GLIDE: Towards Photorealistic Image Generation and Editing with Text-Guided Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10741/) (2021)
- [Analyzing and Improving the Image Quality of StyleGAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04958/) (2019)
- [DreamBooth: Fine Tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models for Subject-Driven Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12242/) (2022)
- [Taming Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09841/) (2020)
- [FaceNet: A Unified Embedding for Face Recognition and Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03832/) (2015)
- [An Image is Worth One Word: Personalizing Text-to-Image Generation using Textual Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01618/) (2022)
- [T2I-Adapter: Learning Adapters to Dig out More Controllable Ability for Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08453/) (2023)
- [Multi-Concept Customization of Text-to-Image Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.04488/) (2022)
- [Tune-A-Video: One-Shot Tuning of Image Diffusion Models for Text-to-Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.11565/) (2022)
- [Joint Face Detection and Alignment using Multi-task Cascaded Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.02878/) (2016)
- [Vector Quantized Diffusion Model for Text-to-Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.14822/) (2021)
- [Generative Adversarial Text to Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.05396/) (2016)
- [AttnGAN: Fine-Grained Text to Image Generation with Attentional Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.10485/) (2017)
- [MaskGAN: Towards Diverse and Interactive Facial Image Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.11922/) (2019)
- [StackGAN: Text to Photo-realistic Image Synthesis with Stacked Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.03242/) (2016)

## Built on by (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [ROBIN: Robust and Invisible Watermarks for Diffusion Models with Adversarial Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.03862/) (2024)
- [D3: Scaling Up Deepfake Detection by Learning from Discrepancy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.04584/) (2024)
- [Re-HOLD: Video Hand Object Interaction Reenactment via adaptive Layout-instructed Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.16942/) (2025)
- [The Silent Assistant: NoiseQuery as Implicit Guidance for Goal-Driven Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.05101/) (2024)
- [Few-Shot Image Generation by Conditional Relaxing Diffusion Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.07249/) (2024)
- [iDiT-HOI: Inpainting-based Hand Object Interaction Reenactment via Video Diffusion Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.12847/) (2025)
- [Implicit Bias Injection Attacks against Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.01819/) (2025)
- [MasterWeaver: Taming Editability and Face Identity for Personalized Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.05806/) (2024)
- [Financial Models in Generative Art: Black-Scholes-Inspired Concept Blending in Text-to-Image Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.13685/) (2024)
- [SOWing Information: Cultivating Contextual Coherence with MLLMs in Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.19182/) (2024)
- [DETER: Detecting Edited Regions for Deterring Generative Manipulations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.10539/) (2023)
- [A Sampling-Based Domain Generalization Study with Diffusion Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.09213/) (2023)
- [BudgetFusion: Perceptually-Guided Adaptive Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.05780/) (2024)
- [GASS: Geometry-Aware Spherical Sampling for Disentangled Diversity Enhancement in Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.17200/) (2026)
- [μFlow: Leveraging Average Images for Improving Generalisation of Deepfake Faces Detectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.30528/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Originating from the diffusion phenomenon in physics that describes particle movement, the diffusion generative models inherit the characteristics of stochastic random walk in the data space along the denoising trajectory. However, the intrinsic mutual interference among image regions contradicts the need for practical downstream application scenarios where the preservation of low-level pixel information from given conditioning is desired (e.g., customization tasks like personalized generation and inpainting based on a user-provided single image). In this work, we investigate the diffusion (physics) in diffusion (machine learning) properties and propose our Cyclic One-Way Diffusion (COW) method to control the direction of diffusion phenomenon given a pre-trained frozen diffusion model for versatile customization application scenarios, where the low-level pixel information from the conditioning needs to be preserved. Notably, unlike most current methods that incorporate additional conditions by fine-tuning the base text-to-image diffusion model or learning auxiliary networks, our method provides a novel perspective to understand the task needs and is applicable to a wider range of customization scenarios in a learning-free manner. Extensive experiment results show that our proposed COW can achieve more flexible customization based on strict visual conditions in different application settings. Project page: https://wangruoyu02.github.io/cow.github.io/.