2024/07/16 by Wenzhao Xiang, Chang Liu, Xiang, Wenzhao +5
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Computer Science · #Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI) #Cell Image Analysis Techniques #Computer Graphics and Visualization Techniques #Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV) #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Generative Adversarial Networks and Image Synthesis
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2407.11537
openalex publication_date 2024/07/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Masked image modeling (MIM) has gained significant traction for its remarkable prowess in representation learning. As an alternative to the traditional approach, the reconstruction from corrupted images has recently emerged as a promising pretext task. However, the regular corrupted images are generated using generic generators, often lacking relevance to the specific reconstruction task involved in pre-training. Hence, reconstruction from regular corrupted images cannot ensure the difficulty of the pretext task, potentially leading to a performance decline. Moreover, generating corrupted images might introduce an extra generator, resulting in a notable computational burden. To address these issues, we propose to incorporate adversarial examples into masked image modeling, as the new reconstruction targets. Adversarial examples, generated online using only the trained models, can directly aim to disrupt tasks associated with pre-training. Therefore, the incorporation not only elevates the level of challenge in reconstruction but also enhances efficiency, contributing to the acquisition of superior representations by the model. In particular, we introduce a novel auxiliary pretext task that reconstructs the adversarial examples corresponding to the original images. We also devise an innovative adversarial attack to craft more suitable adversarial examples for MIM pre-training. It is noted that our method is not restricted to specific model architectures and MIM strategies, rendering it an adaptable plug-in capable of enhancing all MIM methods. Experimental findings substantiate the remarkable capability of our approach in amplifying the generalization and robustness of existing MIM methods. Notably, our method surpasses the performance of baselines on various tasks, including ImageNet, its variants, and other downstream tasks.