# MixBag: Bag-Level Data Augmentation for Learning from Label Proportions

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.08822 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08822/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 25 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Aug 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 25 of 25)

- [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)
- [mixup: Beyond Empirical Risk Minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.09412/) (2017)
- [CutMix: Regularization Strategy to Train Strong Classifiers with Localizable Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.04899/) (2019)
- [RandAugment: Practical automated data augmentation with a reduced search space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.13719/) (2019)
- [Improved Regularization of Convolutional Neural Networks with Cutout](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.04552/) (2017)
- [Temporal Ensembling for Semi-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02242/) (2016)
- [AugMix: A Simple Data Processing Method to Improve Robustness and Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.02781/) (2019)
- [Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation using Cycle-Consistent Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.10593/) (2017)
- [MedMNIST v2 -- A large-scale lightweight benchmark for 2D and 3D biomedical image classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14795/) (2021)
- [The Effectiveness of Data Augmentation in Image Classification using Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.04621/) (2017)
- [Fast AutoAugment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.00397/) (2019)
- [GridMask Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.04086/) (2020)
- [Data Augmentation by Pairing Samples for Images Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.02929/) (2018)
- [Learning from Label Proportions with Consistency Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.13188/) (2019)
- [Deep multi-class learning from label proportions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.12909/) (2019)
- [ReMix: A General and Efficient Framework for Multiple Instance Learning based Whole Slide Image Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.01805/) (2022)
- [Co-training for Demographic Classification Using Deep Learning from Label Proportions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.04108/) (2017)
- [Learning from Label Proportions with Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.02180/) (2019)
- [A novel multiple instance learning framework for COVID-19 severity assessment via data augmentation and self-supervised learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.03837/) (2021)
- [Two-stage Training for Learning from Label Proportions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.10635/) (2021)
- [Negative Pseudo Labeling using Class Proportion for Semantic Segmentation in Pathology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.08044/) (2020)
- [Unified Generative Adversarial Networks for Controllable Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.06112/) (2019)
- [FenceMask: A Data Augmentation Approach for Pre-extracted Image Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.07877/) (2020)
- [Learning from Label Proportion with Online Pseudo-Label Decision by Regret Minimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08947/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Rethinking Multiple Instance Learning for Whole Slide Image Classification: A Bag-Level Classifier is a Good Instance-Level Teacher](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.01099/) (2023)
- [Learning from Partial Label Proportions for Whole Slide Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.09041/) (2024)
- [Theoretical Proportion Label Perturbation for Learning from Label Proportions in Large Bags](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.14130/) (2024)
- [Forming Auxiliary High-confident Instance-level Loss to Promote Learning from Label Proportions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.10364/) (2024)
- [Weakly-Supervised Domain Adaptation with Proportion-Constrained Pseudo-Labeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.22301/) (2025)
- [Learning from Concealed Labels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02230/) (2024)
- [Towards Privacy-Preserving Fine-Grained Visual Classification via Hierarchical Learning from Label Proportions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.23031/) (2025)
- [Leveraging Label Proportion Prior for Class-Imbalanced Semi-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.02957/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Learning from label proportions (LLP) is a promising weakly supervised learning problem. In LLP, a set of instances (bag) has label proportions, but no instance-level labels are given. LLP aims to train an instance-level classifier by using the label proportions of the bag. In this paper, we propose a bag-level data augmentation method for LLP called MixBag, based on the key observation from our preliminary experiments; that the instance-level classification accuracy improves as the number of labeled bags increases even though the total number of instances is fixed. We also propose a confidence interval loss designed based on statistical theory to use the augmented bags effectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to propose bag-level data augmentation for LLP. The advantage of MixBag is that it can be applied to instance-level data augmentation techniques and any LLP method that uses the proportion loss. Experimental results demonstrate this advantage and the effectiveness of our method.