# SparseDC: Depth Completion from sparse and non-uniform inputs

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.00097 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00097/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 35 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 30 Nov 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 35)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [Batch Normalization: Accelerating Deep Network Training by Reducing Internal Covariate Shift](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1502.03167/) (2015)
- [The Cityscapes Dataset for Semantic Urban Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.01685/) (2016)
- [Pyramid Vision Transformer: A Versatile Backbone for Dense Prediction without Convolutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12122/) (2021)
- [PVT v2: Improved Baselines with Pyramid Vision Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.13797/) (2021)
- [ConvNeXt V2: Co-designing and Scaling ConvNets with Masked Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.00808/) (2023)
- [Free-Form Image Inpainting with Gated Convolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.03589/) (2018)
- [A Survey of Autonomous Driving: Common Practices and Emerging Technologies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.05113/) (2019)
- [Sparsity Invariant CNNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.06500/) (2017)
- [Submanifold Sparse Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.01307/) (2017)
- [Non-Local Spatial Propagation Network for Depth Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.10042/) (2020)
- [Sparse-to-Dense: Depth Prediction from Sparse Depth Samples and a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.07492/) (2017)
- [Revisiting Single Image Depth Estimation: Toward Higher Resolution Maps with Accurate Object Boundaries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.08673/) (2018)
- [DeepLiDAR: Deep Surface Normal Guided Depth Prediction for Outdoor Scene from Sparse LiDAR Data and Single Color Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.00488/) (2018)
- [Learning Guided Convolutional Network for Depth Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.01238/) (2019)
- [Depth Estimation via Affinity Learned with Convolutional Spatial Propagation Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.00150/) (2018)
- [CSPN++: Learning Context and Resource Aware Convolutional Spatial Propagation Networks for Depth Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05377/) (2019)
- [Depth Completion from Sparse LiDAR Data with Depth-Normal Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.06727/) (2019)
- [CompletionFormer: Depth Completion with Convolutions and Vision Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.13030/) (2023)
- [Intel RealSense Stereoscopic Depth Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.05548/) (2017)
- [Dynamic Spatial Propagation Network for Depth Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.09769/) (2022)
- [Adaptive Context-Aware Multi-Modal Network for Depth Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.10833/) (2020)
- [LRRU: Long-short Range Recurrent Updating Networks for Depth Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08956/) (2023)
- [Guided Depth Super-Resolution by Deep Anisotropic Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.11592/) (2022)
- [FCFR-Net: Feature Fusion based Coarse-to-Fine Residual Learning for Depth Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.08270/) (2020)
- [Deep Depth Completion from Extremely Sparse Data: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.05335/) (2022)
- [Sparsity Agnostic Depth Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.00790/) (2022)
- [GraphCSPN: Geometry-Aware Depth Completion via Dynamic GCNs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.10758/) (2022)
- [DenseLiDAR: A Real-Time Pseudo Dense Depth Guided Depth Completion Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.12655/) (2021)

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

- [OGNI-DC: Robust Depth Completion with Optimization-Guided Neural Iterations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11711/) (2024)
- [Multi-view Reconstruction via SfM-guided Monocular Depth Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14483/) (2025)
- [Explicitly Guided Information Interaction Network for Cross-modal Point Cloud Completion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.02887/) (2024)
- [PacGDC: Label-Efficient Generalizable Depth Completion with Projection Ambiguity and Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.07374/) (2025)
- [SPADE: Sparsity Adaptive Depth Estimator for Zero-Shot, Real-Time, Monocular Depth Estimation in Underwater Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.25463/) (2025)
- [WHU-Synthetic: A Synthetic Perception Dataset for 3-D Multitask Model Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.19059/) (2024)
- [Geometry-Aware Sparse Depth Sampling for High-Fidelity RGB-D Depth Completion in Robotic Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.08229/) (2025)
- [Real-Time LiDAR Point Cloud Densification for Low-Latency Spatial Data Transmission](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.01210/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose SparseDC, a model for Depth Completion of Sparse and non-uniform depth inputs. Unlike previous methods focusing on completing fixed distributions on benchmark datasets (e.g., NYU with 500 points, KITTI with 64 lines), SparseDC is specifically designed to handle depth maps with poor quality in real usage. The key contributions of SparseDC are two-fold. First, we design a simple strategy, called SFFM, to improve the robustness under sparse input by explicitly filling the unstable depth features with stable image features. Second, we propose a two-branch feature embedder to predict both the precise local geometry of regions with available depth values and accurate structures in regions with no depth. The key of the embedder is an uncertainty-based fusion module called UFFM to balance the local and long-term information extracted by CNNs and ViTs. Extensive indoor and outdoor experiments demonstrate the robustness of our framework when facing sparse and non-uniform input depths. The pre-trained model and code are available at https://github.com/WHU-USI3DV/SparseDC.