Video Segmentation Training with Temporal Consistency Loss

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing video segmentation models face challenges in achieving both accuracy and temporal stability, with current metrics focusing primarily on single-frame accuracy and neglecting temporal consistency, leading to unstable segmentation across consecutive frames.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a lightweight temporal consistency loss function that penalizes significant changes in output predictions when input remains stable, while allowing changes where the scene has shifted, to enhance the temporal stability of segmentation networks.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If current video segmentation models are trained using single-frame accuracy metrics, then segmentation accuracy for individual frames is improved, but temporal stability and consistency across consecutive frames deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesegmentation accuracyVSAvoidtemporal stability
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a temporal consistency loss function that provides feedback about temporal stability to the training process. This loss function compares segmentation predictions across consecutive frames and penalizes inconsistencies, thereby guiding the model to produce temporally stable segmentations while maintaining accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The patent modifies the training objective by adding a temporal consistency loss term to the standard accuracy loss. This parameter change in the loss function allows the model to simultaneously optimize for both single-frame accuracy and temporal stability, resolving the contradiction between the two objectives.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Measurement precision

If existing metrics focus on single-frame accuracy, then segmentation accuracy is improved, but computational complexity for achieving temporal stability increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesegmentation accuracyVSAvoidcomputational complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts the temporal consistency evaluation into a separate, lightweight loss function that can be computed efficiently during training. By isolating the temporal consistency check as a distinct component with its own computational graph, the overall system maintains simplicity while achieving temporal stability without significant computational overhead.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The temporal consistency loss function applies a partial evaluation approach by only comparing consecutive frames and focusing on changes that matter for temporal stability. This selective computation avoids the need for exhaustive analysis of all possible temporal relationships, reducing computational complexity while maintaining effectiveness.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Measurement precision

If segmentation models prioritize accuracy metrics, then segmentation accuracy is improved, but temporal consistency and stability across frames deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesegmentation accuracyVSAvoidtemporal consistency
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a composite loss function that combines both accuracy loss and temporal consistency loss. This composite objective function allows the model to simultaneously optimize for accuracy and temporal consistency, treating both as equally important components of the overall training objective rather than prioritizing one over the other.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #40Composite materials

Data Source

PatentEP4651077A1Training video segmentation models using temporal consistency loss
Publication Date: 2025.11.19 INTEL CORP
  • EP4651077A1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP4651077A1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP4651077A1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Video segmentation predictions can be temporally unstable. Some techniques can be implemented to mitigate temporal instability, but the techniques can be computationally complex. Some techniques only account for changes in the output and do not account for changes in the input. To address some of these shortcomings, a lightweight technique can be implemented to compute a temporal consistency loss. The temporal consistency loss can be higher when a pixel-wise intensity change is small, and a pixel-wise prediction change is large. The temporal consistency loss can be lower otherwise. The temporal consistency loss can be used with one or more other losses as a part of a loss function for training a segmentation network to improve temporal stability in output segmentation maps.