# Point-LN: A Lightweight Framework for Efficient Point Cloud Classification Using Non-Parametric Positional Encoding

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.14238 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.14238/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 35 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 24 Jan 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [PointNet: Deep Learning on Point Sets for 3D Classification and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.00593/) (2016)
- [PointNet++: Deep Hierarchical Feature Learning on Point Sets in a Metric Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02413/) (2017)
- [Dynamic Graph CNN for Learning on Point Clouds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.07829/) (2018)
- [Point Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.00931/) (2020)
- [VoxelNet: End-to-End Learning for Point Cloud Based 3D Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.06396/) (2017)
- [KPConv: Flexible and Deformable Convolution for Point Clouds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08889/) (2019)
- [PointCNN: Convolution On X-Transformed Points](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.07791/) (2018)
- [PointConv: Deep Convolutional Networks on 3D Point Clouds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.07246/) (2018)
- [Multi-view Convolutional Neural Networks for 3D Shape Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.00880/) (2015)
- [Revisiting Point Cloud Classification: A New Benchmark Dataset and Classification Model on Real-World Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.04616/) (2019)
- [Rethinking Network Design and Local Geometry in Point Cloud: A Simple Residual MLP Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.07123/) (2022)
- [Walk in the Cloud: Learning Curves for Point Clouds Shape Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.01288/) (2021)
- [Modeling Point Clouds with Self-Attention and Gumbel Subset Sampling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03375/) (2019)
- [MVTN: Multi-View Transformation Network for 3D Shape Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13244/) (2020)
- [Parameter is Not All You Need: Starting from Non-Parametric Networks for 3D Point Cloud Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08134/) (2023)
- [Beyond Triplet Loss: Person Re-identification with Fine-grained Difference-aware Pairwise Loss](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.10295/) (2020)
- [GIFT: A Real-time and Scalable 3D Shape Search Engine](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.01879/) (2016)
- [FPNN: Field Probing Neural Networks for 3D Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1605.06240/) (2016)
- [Point-GN: A Non-Parametric Network Using Gaussian Positional Encoding for Point Cloud Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03056/) (2024)

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

- [Enhancing 3D Point Cloud Classification with ModelNet-R and Point-SkipNet](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.05198/) (2025)
- [NPNet: A Non-Parametric Network with Adaptive Gaussian-Fourier Positional Encoding for 3D Classification and Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00542/) (2026)
- [SLNet: A Super-Lightweight Geometry-Adaptive Network for 3D Point Cloud Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.07454/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce Point-LN, a novel lightweight framework engineered for efficient 3D point cloud classification. Point-LN integrates essential non-parametric components-such as Farthest Point Sampling (FPS), k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN), and non-learnable positional encoding-with a streamlined learnable classifier that significantly enhances classification accuracy while maintaining a minimal parameter footprint. This hybrid architecture ensures low computational costs and rapid inference speeds, making Point-LN ideal for real-time and resource-constrained applications. Comprehensive evaluations on benchmark datasets, including ModelNet40 and ScanObjectNN, demonstrate that Point-LN achieves competitive performance compared to state-of-the-art methods, all while offering exceptional efficiency. These results establish Point-LN as a robust and scalable solution for diverse point cloud classification tasks, highlighting its potential for widespread adoption in various computer vision applications.