# SGDFuse: SAM-Guided Diffusion Model for High-Fidelity Infrared and Visible Image Fusion

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05264 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.05264/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Image generation, text-to-image and editing, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models.
- Builds on 23 of its 45 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Aug 2025.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Image generation, text-to-image and editing](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/image-generation-text-to-image-and-editing/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 23 of 23)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.00667/) (2022)
- [You Only Look Once: Unified, Real-Time Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02640/) (2015)
- [Encoder-Decoder with Atrous Separable Convolution for Semantic Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.02611/) (2018)
- [SegFormer: Simple and Efficient Design for Semantic Segmentation with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.15203/) (2021)
- [Masked-attention Mask Transformer for Universal Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.01527/) (2021)
- [Image Super-Resolution via Iterative Refinement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.07636/) (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)
- [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)
- [Equivariant Multi-Modality Image Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.11443/) (2023)
- [Dif-Fusion: Towards High Color Fidelity in Infrared and Visible Image Fusion with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.08072/) (2023)
- [Every SAM Drop Counts: Embracing Semantic Priors for Multi-Modality Image Fusion and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01210/) (2025)
- [Text-DiFuse: An Interactive Multi-Modal Image Fusion Framework based on Text-modulated Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.23905/) (2024)
- [Learning a Graph Neural Network with Cross Modality Interaction for Image Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03256/) (2023)
- [DDPM-CD: Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models as Feature Extractors for Change Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.11892/) (2022)
- [Learning Aggregated Transmission Propagation Networks for Haze Removal and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.06787/) (2017)
- [MaeFuse: Transferring Omni Features with Pretrained Masked Autoencoders for Infrared and Visible Image Fusion via Guided Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.11016/) (2024)
- [TSJNet: A Multi-modality Target and Semantic Awareness Joint-driven Image Fusion Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01212/) (2024)
- [Conti-Fuse: A Novel Continuous Decomposition-based Fusion Framework for Infrared and Visible Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04689/) (2024)
- [textrmA^textrm2RNet: Adversarial Attack Resilient Network for Robust Infrared and Visible Image Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.09954/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Infrared and visible image fusion (IVIF) is essential for integrating thermal saliency with textural details to support downstream perception. However, most existing approaches suffer from "semantic blindness," leading to the erroneous suppression of thermal targets and the introduction of visual artifacts. To address this, we propose SAM-Guided Diffusion Fusion Network (SGDFuse), a novel Semantic-Guided Generation (SGG) framework that reframes IVIF as a semantically-steered generative task rather than simplistic pixel mapping. Our method uniquely couples high-level semantic priors from the Segment Anything Model (SAM) with the high-fidelity generative power of a conditional diffusion model. We employ a deliberate two-stage strategy to decouple multimodal alignment from iterative refinement: Stage I establishes a robust structural foundation via preliminary fusion, while Stage II utilizes dual-modality semantic masks as spatial anchors to guide the diffusion process toward a semantically coherent, high-fidelity reconstruction. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate that SGDFuse not only delivers state-of-the-art image quality but also enhances downstream task performance, confirming its effectiveness as a new Methodological Framework for semantically aware image fusion. The code is available at https://github.com/boshizhang123/SGDFuse.