IAdet: Simplest human-in-the-loop object detection

This work proposes a strategy for training models while annotating data named Intelligent Annotation (IA). IA involves three modules: (1) assisted data annotation, (2) background model training, and (3) active selection of the next datapoints. Under this framework, we open-source the IAdet tool, which is specific for single-class object detection. Additionally, we devise a method for automatically evaluating such a human-in-the-loop system. For the PASCAL VOC dataset, the IAdet tool reduces the database annotation time by $25\%$ while providing a trained model for free. These results are obtained for a deliberately very simple IAdet design. As a consequence, IAdet is susceptible to multiple easy improvements, paving the way for powerful human-in-the-loop object detection systems.

Optimal and Efficient Binary Questioning for Human-in-the-Loop Annotation

Even though data annotation is extremely important for interpretability, research and development of artificial intelligence solutions, most research efforts such as active learning or few-shot learning focus on the sample efficiency problem. This paper studies the neglected complementary problem of getting annotated data given a predictor. For the simple binary classification setting, we present the spectrum ranging from optimal general solutions to practical efficient methods. The problem is framed as the full annotation of a binary classification dataset with the minimal number of yes/no questions when a predictor is available. For the case of general binary questions the solution is found in coding theory, where the optimal questioning strategy is given by the Huffman encoding of the possible labelings. However, this approach is computationally intractable even for small dataset sizes. We propose an alternative practical solution based on several heuristics and lookahead minimization of proxy cost functions. The proposed solution is analysed, compared with optimal solutions and evaluated on several synthetic and real-world datasets. On these datasets, the method allows a significant improvement ($23-86\%$) in annotation efficiency.