# Gradient-based Sampling for Class Imbalanced Semi-supervised Object Detection

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.15127 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.15127/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 33 of its 40 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Microsoft COCO: Common Objects in Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1405.0312/) (2014)
- [Faster R-CNN: Towards Real-Time Object Detection with Region Proposal Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.01497/) (2015)
- [Feature Pyramid Networks for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.03144/) (2016)
- [LVIS: A Dataset for Large Vocabulary Instance Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.03195/) (2019)
- [An overview of gradient descent optimization algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.04747/) (2016)
- [Decoupling Representation and Classifier for Long-Tailed Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.09217/) (2019)
- [Long-tail learning via logit adjustment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.07314/) (2020)
- [Pseudo-Labeling and Confirmation Bias in Deep Semi-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.02983/) (2019)
- [Balanced Meta-Softmax for Long-Tailed Visual Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.10740/) (2020)
- [End-to-End Semi-Supervised Object Detection with Soft Teacher](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.09018/) (2021)
- [Unbiased Teacher for Semi-Supervised Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09480/) (2021)
- [A Simple Semi-Supervised Learning Framework for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.04757/) (2020)
- [CReST: A Class-Rebalancing Self-Training Framework for Imbalanced Semi-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09559/) (2021)
- [CrossTransformers: spatially-aware few-shot transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.11498/) (2020)
- [Overcoming Classifier Imbalance for Long-tail Object Detection with Balanced Group Softmax](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.10408/) (2020)
- [DeFRCN: Decoupled Faster R-CNN for Few-Shot Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.09017/) (2021)
- [Equalization Loss v2: A New Gradient Balance Approach for Long-tailed Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.08548/) (2020)
- [Beyond Max-Margin: Class Margin Equilibrium for Few-shot Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.04612/) (2021)
- [Unbiased Teacher v2: Semi-supervised Object Detection for Anchor-free and Anchor-based Detectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.09500/) (2022)
- [ABC: Auxiliary Balanced Classifier for Class-imbalanced Semi-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.10368/) (2021)
- [Query Adaptive Few-Shot Object Detection with Heterogeneous Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.09791/) (2021)
- [DASO: Distribution-Aware Semantics-Oriented Pseudo-label for Imbalanced Semi-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.05682/) (2021)
- [Exploring Classification Equilibrium in Long-Tailed Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07507/) (2021)
- [Equalized Focal Loss for Dense Long-Tailed Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.02593/) (2022)
- [Rethinking Pseudo Labels for Semi-Supervised Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.00168/) (2021)
- [Label Matching Semi-Supervised Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.06608/) (2022)
- [Label, Verify, Correct: A Simple Few Shot Object Detection Method](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.05749/) (2021)
- [Forest R-CNN: Large-Vocabulary Long-Tailed Object Detection and Instance Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.05676/) (2020)
- [MosaicOS: A Simple and Effective Use of Object-Centric Images for Long-Tailed Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.08884/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Decoupled Pseudo-labeling for Semi-Supervised Monocular 3D Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.17387/) (2024)
- [UniFL: Improve Latent Diffusion Model via Unified Feedback Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.05595/) (2024)
- [Aligned Consensus Teaching for Label-Efficient Oriented Object Detection in Weakly-Aligned Visible-Infrared Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.18124/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Current semi-supervised object detection (SSOD) algorithms typically assume class balanced datasets (PASCAL VOC etc.) or slightly class imbalanced datasets (MS-COCO, etc). This assumption can be easily violated since real world datasets can be extremely class imbalanced in nature, thus making the performance of semi-supervised object detectors far from satisfactory. Besides, the research for this problem in SSOD is severely under-explored. To bridge this research gap, we comprehensively study the class imbalance problem for SSOD under more challenging scenarios, thus forming the first experimental setting for class imbalanced SSOD (CI-SSOD). Moreover, we propose a simple yet effective gradient-based sampling framework that tackles the class imbalance problem from the perspective of two types of confirmation biases. To tackle confirmation bias towards majority classes, the gradient-based reweighting and gradient-based thresholding modules leverage the gradients from each class to fully balance the influence of the majority and minority classes. To tackle the confirmation bias from incorrect pseudo labels of minority classes, the class-rebalancing sampling module resamples unlabeled data following the guidance of the gradient-based reweighting module. Experiments on three proposed sub-tasks, namely MS-COCO, MS-COCO to Object365 and LVIS, suggest that our method outperforms current class imbalanced object detectors by clear margins, serving as a baseline for future research in CI-SSOD. Code will be available at https://github.com/nightkeepers/CI-SSOD.
