# DAE-Fuse: An Adaptive Discriminative Autoencoder for Multi-Modality Image Fusion

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.10080 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.10080/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 17 of its 40 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Sep 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [Restormer: Efficient Transformer for High-Resolution Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.09881/) (2021)
- [Target-aware Dual Adversarial Learning and a Multi-scenario Multi-Modality Benchmark to Fuse Infrared and Visible for Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.16220/) (2022)
- [How Do Vision Transformers Work?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.06709/) (2022)
- [CDDFuse: Correlation-Driven Dual-Branch Feature Decomposition for Multi-Modality Image Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.14461/) (2022)
- [DenseFuse: A Fusion Approach to Infrared and Visible Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.08361/) (2018)
- [DDFM: Denoising Diffusion Model for Multi-Modality Image Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.06840/) (2023)
- [Drone-based RGB-Infrared Cross-Modality Vehicle Detection via Uncertainty-Aware Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.02437/) (2020)
- [Multi-interactive Feature Learning and a Full-time Multi-modality Benchmark for Image Fusion and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.02097/) (2023)
- [RFN-Nest: An end-to-end residual fusion network for infrared and visible images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.04286/) (2021)
- [LRRNet: A Novel Representation Learning Guided Fusion Network for Infrared and Visible Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05172/) (2023)
- [Fast Vision Transformers with HiLo Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.13213/) (2022)
- [DIDFuse: Deep Image Decomposition for Infrared and Visible Image Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.09210/) (2020)
- [NestFuse: An Infrared and Visible Image Fusion Architecture based on Nest Connection and Spatial/Channel Attention Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.00328/) (2020)
- [Medical Image Fusion: A survey of the state of the art](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1401.0166/) (2013)
- [Searching a Compact Architecture for Robust Multi-Exposure Image Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.12236/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [LumiVideo: An Intelligent Agentic System for Video Color Grading](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.02409/) (2026)
- [Adding Thermal Awareness to Visual Systems in Real-Time via Distilled Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.06010/) (2026)
- [Bringing Multimodal Large Language Models to Infrared-Visible Image Fusion Quality Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.06969/) (2026)
- [FMRFusion: Frequency-Aware Multi-View Representation Learning for Heterogeneous Image Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.07985/) (2026)
- [SenseWeather: Multimodal Sensing for Robust Robotic Perception under Extreme Conditions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.14082/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In extreme scenarios such as nighttime or low-visibility environments, achieving reliable perception is critical for applications like autonomous driving, robotics, and surveillance. Multi-modality image fusion, particularly integrating infrared imaging, offers a robust solution by combining complementary information from different modalities to enhance scene understanding and decision-making. However, current methods face significant limitations: GAN-based approaches often produce blurry images that lack fine-grained details, while AE-based methods may introduce bias toward specific modalities, leading to unnatural fusion results. To address these challenges, we propose DAE-Fuse, a novel two-phase discriminative autoencoder framework that generates sharp and natural fused images. Furthermore, We pioneer the extension of image fusion techniques from static images to the video domain while preserving temporal consistency across frames, thus advancing the perceptual capabilities required for autonomous navigation. Extensive experiments on public datasets demonstrate that DAE-Fuse achieves state-of-the-art performance on multiple benchmarks, with superior generalizability to tasks like medical image fusion.