# E-S2Feat:Semantic-Guided Spiking Local Feature Detection and Description for Event Cameras

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.14027 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.14027/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 45 of its 64 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Aug 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 45)

- [Squeeze-and-Excitation Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.01507/) (2017)
- [SuperGlue: Learning Feature Matching with Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.11763/) (2019)
- [SuperPoint: Self-Supervised Interest Point Detection and Description](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.07629/) (2017)
- [Event-based Vision: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08405/) (2019)
- [Surrogate Gradient Learning in Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.09948/) (2019)
- [LightGlue: Local Feature Matching at Light Speed](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.13643/) (2023)
- [MaxViT: Multi-Axis Vision Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.01697/) (2022)
- [VINS-Mono: A Robust and Versatile Monocular Visual-Inertial State Estimator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.03852/) (2017)
- [Open-Vocabulary Panoptic Segmentation with Text-to-Image Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04803/) (2023)
- [DSEC: A Stereo Event Camera Dataset for Driving Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.06011/) (2021)
- [HPatches: A benchmark and evaluation of handcrafted and learned local descriptors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.05939/) (2017)
- [Deep Learning in Spiking Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.08150/) (2018)
- [The Multi Vehicle Stereo Event Camera Dataset: An Event Camera Dataset for 3D Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.10202/) (2018)
- [The Event-Camera Dataset and Simulator: Event-based Data for Pose Estimation, Visual Odometry, and SLAM](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.08336/) (2016)
- [Event-based Vision meets Deep Learning on Steering Prediction for Self-driving Cars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.01310/) (2018)
- [Spiking-YOLO: Spiking Neural Network for Energy-Efficient Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.06530/) (2019)
- [Ultimate SLAM? Combining Events, Images, and IMU for Robust Visual SLAM in HDR and High Speed Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.06310/) (2017)
- [DynaSLAM: Tracking, Mapping and Inpainting in Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.05620/) (2018)
- [Temporal-wise Attention Spiking Neural Networks for Event Streams Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.11711/) (2021)
- [Event-based Stereo Visual Odometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.15548/) (2020)
- [Event-aided Direct Sparse Odometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.07640/) (2022)
- [DS-SLAM: A Semantic Visual SLAM towards Dynamic Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.08379/) (2018)
- [Integer-Valued Training and Spike-Driven Inference Spiking Neural Network for High-performance and Energy-efficient Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.20708/) (2024)
- [Learning Dense and Continuous Optical Flow from an Event Camera](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.09078/) (2022)
- [DDD20 End-to-End Event Camera Driving Dataset: Fusing Frames and Events with Deep Learning for Improved Steering Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.08605/) (2020)
- [Semantic Visual Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.05773/) (2017)
- [Speed Invariant Time Surface for Learning to Detect Corner Points with Event-Based Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.11332/) (2019)
- [TUM-VIE: The TUM Stereo Visual-Inertial Event Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07329/) (2021)
- [ViViD++: Vision for Visibility Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06183/) (2022)
- [OKVIS2: Realtime Scalable Visual-Inertial SLAM with Loop Closure](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.09199/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Benefiting from high temporal resolution and dynamic range, event-based local feature methods have attracted increasing attention. However, event sparsity, noise, and limited texture still hinder robust local feature learning. Deploying such methods on resource-constrained platforms such as unmanned aerial vehicles also requires balancing accuracy and energy efficiency. To address these challenges, this paper proposes E-S2Feat, a spiking neural network framework for event-based local feature detection and description. The framework jointly optimizes local feature learning from the perspectives of feature representation and selection. First, a module-specific spiking activation mechanism preserves fine-grained structural cues and discriminative information under low-bit, energy-efficient inference, thereby improving overall representation fidelity. Furthermore, a semantic-guided feature modulation mechanism leverages semantic priors to refine keypoint response distributions and enhance local descriptor discriminability, thereby guiding the model to extract local features with greater geometric stability and stronger discriminative capability. Experiments on the ECD and EDS datasets show that the proposed method significantly outperforms baseline methods such as SuperEvent in pose estimation accuracy. It also achieves accuracy comparable to its artificial neural network counterpart while delivering an approximately 4.8-fold improvement in theoretical computational energy efficiency. Visual-inertial odometry experiments on the TUM-VIE dataset further verify the effectiveness and practical application potential of the proposed method in complete SLAM systems.