# C3Net: Context-Contrast Network for Camouflaged Object Detection

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.12627 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.12627/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 27 of its 44 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Nov 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [SAM 2: Segment Anything in Images and Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00714/) (2024)
- [CBAM: Convolutional Block Attention Module](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.06521/) (2018)
- [Vision Transformers Need Registers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16588/) (2023)
- [ECA-Net: Efficient Channel Attention for Deep Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.03151/) (2019)
- [Structure-measure: A New Way to Evaluate Foreground Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.00786/) (2017)
- [PraNet: Parallel Reverse Attention Network for Polyp Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11392/) (2020)
- [Enhanced-alignment Measure for Binary Foreground Map Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.10421/) (2018)
- [Tversky loss function for image segmentation using 3D fully convolutional deep networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.05721/) (2017)
- [Anabranch Network for Camouflaged Object Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.09451/) (2021)
- [Concealed Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.10274/) (2021)
- [Simultaneously Localize, Segment and Rank the Camouflaged Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.04011/) (2021)
- [Camouflaged Object Segmentation with Distraction Mining](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10475/) (2021)
- [Zoom In and Out: A Mixed-scale Triplet Network for Camouflaged Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02688/) (2022)
- [Uncertainty-aware Joint Salient Object and Camouflaged Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.02628/) (2021)
- [Mutual Graph Learning for Camouflaged Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.02613/) (2021)
- [Can SAM Segment Anything? When SAM Meets Camouflaged Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.04709/) (2023)
- [Feature Shrinkage Pyramid for Camouflaged Object Detection with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.14816/) (2023)
- [Context-aware Cross-level Fusion Network for Camouflaged Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.12555/) (2021)
- [High-resolution Iterative Feedback Network for Camouflaged Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11624/) (2022)
- [CamoFormer: Masked Separable Attention for Camouflaged Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06570/) (2022)
- [Learning to Upsample by Learning to Sample](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.15085/) (2023)
- [Frequency-Spatial Entanglement Learning for Camouflaged Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.01686/) (2024)
- [Frequency Perception Network for Camouflaged Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.08924/) (2023)
- [OSFormer: One-Stage Camouflaged Instance Segmentation with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.02255/) (2022)
- [Boosting Camouflaged Object Detection with Dual-Task Interactive Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10579/) (2022)
- [Evaluating SAM2's Role in Camouflaged Object Detection: From SAM to SAM2](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.21596/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [B-GRTO: Bootstrapped Group Relative Tool Optimization for Referring Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23500/) (2026)
- [RIDE: Retinex-Informed Decoupling for Exposing Concealed Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.15450/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Camouflaged object detection identifies objects that blend seamlessly with their surroundings through similar colors, textures, and patterns. This task challenges both traditional segmentation methods and modern foundation models, which fail dramatically on camouflaged objects. We identify six fundamental challenges in COD: Intrinsic Similarity, Edge Disruption, Extreme Scale Variation, Environmental Complexities, Contextual Dependencies, and Salient-Camouflaged Object Disambiguation. These challenges frequently co-occur and compound the difficulty of detection, requiring comprehensive architectural solutions. We propose C3Net, which addresses all challenges through a specialized dual-pathway decoder architecture. The Edge Refinement Pathway employs gradient-initialized Edge Enhancement Modules to recover precise boundaries from early features. The Contextual Localization Pathway utilizes our novel Image-based Context Guidance mechanism to achieve intrinsic saliency suppression without external models. An Attentive Fusion Module synergistically combines the two pathways via spatial gating. C3Net achieves state-of-the-art performance with S-measures of 0.898 on COD10K, 0.904 on CAMO, and 0.913 on NC4K, while maintaining efficient processing. C3Net demonstrates that complex, multifaceted detection challenges require architectural innovation, with specialized components working synergistically to achieve comprehensive coverage beyond isolated improvements. Code, model weights, and results are available at https://github.com/Baber-Jan/C3Net.