Neural Domain Adaptation Using Domain-Invariant Feature Learning

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional unsupervised domain adaptation approaches struggle with optimizing divergence measures, leading to a large disconnect between theory and state-of-the-art methods due to domain gaps in training and test distributions, resulting in poor performance when applying models to new domains with insufficient labeled data.

Innovation Solution

A neural network training method using an encoding network and two classifier networks, optimized with a common loss function, to extract domain-agnostic features, ensuring accurate object classification across multiple domains.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If conventional divergence measures are used for domain adaptation, then theoretical generalization bounds are established, but optimization becomes hard and performance deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetheoretical generalization boundsVSAvoidoptimization difficulty
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent transforms the theoretical divergence measure into a practical optimization objective by changing the parameter representation from abstract divergence to concrete neural network loss functions. The domain adaptation problem is reformulated with learnable parameters that can be optimized through standard gradient descent, bridging the gap between theory and practice.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical optimization of divergence measures with a neural network-based system that learns domain-invariant features automatically. Instead of directly optimizing divergence between distributions, the system uses neural networks to transform input data into a shared representation space where domain differences are minimized.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Measurement precision

If domain-specific features are extracted, then accuracy on source domain is improved, but adaptability to target domain deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveclassification accuracyVSAvoiddomain adaptability
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a universal feature extraction system that serves multiple domains simultaneously. The neural network is trained to extract features that are useful for classification across different domains, making the system multi-functional rather than domain-specific. This is achieved through domain adaptation techniques that align feature distributions across source and target domains.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent changes the feature representation parameters to be domain-invariant. By learning transformation parameters that map different domain distributions to a common target distribution, the system maintains high classification accuracy while achieving cross-domain adaptability. The learned parameters enable the same feature extractor to work effectively across multiple domains.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

3Reliability

If labeled data from target domain is increased, then model performance on target domain is improved, but data requirement and cost increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetarget domain performanceVSAvoidlabeled data quantity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary action by pre-training the neural network on abundant labeled source domain data before deployment to the target domain. This preliminary training establishes a strong baseline model that can then be adapted to the target domain with minimal labeled data, reducing the overall data requirement while maintaining performance.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces an intermediary unsupervised domain adaptation process that bridges the source and target domains. This intermediary step uses unlabeled target domain data to align distributions and transfer knowledge, acting as a mediator that reduces the need for大量 labeled target domain data while still achieving good performance.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentUS12541570B2Unsupervised domain adaptation with neural networks
Publication Date: 2026.02.03 NVIDIA CORP
  • US12541570B2 patent drawing
  • US12541570B2 patent drawing
  • US12541570B2 patent drawing

AI summary

Approaches presented herein provide for unsupervised domain transfer learning. In particular, three neural networks can be trained together using at least labeled data from a first domain and unlabeled data from a second domain. Features of the data are extracted using a feature extraction network. A first classifier network uses these features to classify the data, while a second classifier network uses these features to determine the relevant domain. A combined loss function is used to optimize the networks, with a goal of the feature extraction network extracting features that the first classifier network is able to use to accurately classify the data, but prevent the second classifier from determining the domain for the image. Such optimization enables object classification to be performed with high accuracy for either domain, even though there may have been little to no labeled training data for the second domain.