# Conditional Polarization Guidance for Camouflaged Object Detection

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.30008 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.30008/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 24 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 31 Mar 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [PraNet: Parallel Reverse Attention Network for Polyp Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11392/) (2020)
- [Anabranch Network for Camouflaged Object Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.09451/) (2021)
- [Camouflaged Object Segmentation with Distraction Mining](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10475/) (2021)
- [SAM2-Adapter: Evaluating & Adapting Segment Anything 2 in Downstream Tasks: Camouflage, Shadow, Medical Image Segmentation, and More](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.04579/) (2024)
- [Source-free Depth for Object Pop-out](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.05370/) (2022)
- [SPSN: Superpixel Prototype Sampling Network for RGB-D Salient Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.07898/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Camouflaged object detection (COD) aims to identify targets that are highly blended with their backgrounds. Recent works have shown that the optical characteristics of polarization cues play a significant role in improving camouflaged object detection. However, most existing polarization-based approaches depend on complex visual encoders and fusion mechanisms, leading to increased model complexity and computational overhead, while failing to fully explore how polarization can explicitly guide hierarchical RGB representation learning. To address these limitations, we propose CPGNet, an asymmetric RGB-polarization framework that introduces a conditional polarization guidance mechanism to explicitly regulate RGB feature learning for camouflaged object detection. Specifically, we design a lightweight polarization interaction module that jointly models these complementary cues and generates reliable polarization guidance in a unified manner. Unlike conventional feature fusion strategies, the proposed conditional guidance mechanism dynamically modulates RGB features using polarization priors, enabling the network to focus on subtle discrepancies between camouflaged objects and their backgrounds. Furthermore, we introduce a polarization edge-guided frequency refinement strategy that enhances high-frequency components under polarization constraints, effectively breaking camouflage patterns. Finally, we develop an iterative feedback decoder to perform coarse-to-fine feature calibration and progressively refine camouflage prediction. Extensive experiments on polarization datasets across multiple tasks, along with evaluations on non-polarization datasets, demonstrate that CPGNet consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods.