# MARMOT: Masked Autoencoder for Modeling Transient Imaging

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08470 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08470/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 32 of its 65 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Jun 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 32)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04805/) (2018)
- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [Denoising Diffusion Implicit Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.02502/) (2020)
- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [DINOv2: Learning Robust Visual Features without Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.07193/) (2023)
- [Masked Autoencoders Are Scalable Vision Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.06377/) (2021)
- [BEiT: BERT Pre-Training of Image Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.08254/) (2021)
- [Vision Transformers for Dense Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.13413/) (2021)
- [Objaverse: A Universe of Annotated 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08051/) (2022)
- [VideoMAE: Masked Autoencoders are Data-Efficient Learners for Self-Supervised Video Pre-Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12602/) (2022)
- [VideoMAE V2: Scaling Video Masked Autoencoders with Dual Masking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.16727/) (2023)
- [Masked Autoencoders As Spatiotemporal Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.09113/) (2022)
- [Gated Attention for Large Language Models: Non-linearity, Sparsity, and Attention-Sink-Free](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.06708/) (2025)
- [Segment Anything in Medical Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.12306/) (2023)
- [BEVT: BERT Pretraining of Video Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.01529/) (2021)
- [USFM: A Universal Ultrasound Foundation Model Generalized to Tasks and Organs towards Label Efficient Image Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.00153/) (2023)
- [Virtual Wave Optics for Non-Line-of-Sight Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.07535/) (2018)
- [Non-line-of-Sight Imaging via Neural Transient Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.00373/) (2021)
- [Fast Back-Projection for Non-Line of Sight Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.02016/) (2017)
- [Deep Non-Line-of-Sight Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.09067/) (2020)
- [Real-time Non-line-of-Sight imaging of dynamic scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.12737/) (2020)
- [Physics to the Rescue: Deep Non-line-of-sight Reconstruction for High-speed Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.01679/) (2022)
- [NLOS-NeuS: Non-line-of-sight Neural Implicit Surface](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12280/) (2023)
- [Efficient Non-Line-of-Sight Imaging from Transient Sinograms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.02787/) (2020)
- [Non-line-of-sight imaging with arbitrary illumination and detection pattern](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.00648/) (2022)
- [Few-shot Non-line-of-sight Imaging with Signal-surface Collaborative Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.15367/) (2022)
- [Omni-Line-of-Sight Imaging for Holistic Shape Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.10780/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Ghost-FWL: A Large-Scale Full-Waveform LiDAR Dataset for Ghost Detection and Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.28224/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Pretrained models have demonstrated impressive success in many modalities such as language and vision. Recent works facilitate the pretraining paradigm in imaging research. Transients are a novel modality, which are captured for an object as photon counts versus arrival times using a precisely time-resolved sensor. In particular for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios, transients of hidden objects are measured beyond the sensor's direct line of sight. Using NLOS transients, the majority of previous works optimize volume density or surfaces to reconstruct the hidden objects and do not transfer priors learned from datasets. In this work, we present a masked autoencoder for modeling transient imaging, or MARMOT, to facilitate NLOS applications. Our MARMOT is a self-supervised model pretrianed on massive and diverse NLOS transient datasets. Using a Transformer-based encoder-decoder, MARMOT learns features from partially masked transients via a scanning pattern mask (SPM), where the unmasked subset is functionally equivalent to arbitrary sampling, and predicts full measurements. Pretrained on TransVerse-a synthesized transient dataset of 500K 3D models-MARMOT adapts to downstream imaging tasks using direct feature transfer or decoder finetuning. Comprehensive experiments are carried out in comparisons with state-of-the-art methods. Quantitative and qualitative results demonstrate the efficiency of our MARMOT.