FE-Net: Feature enhancement segmentation network

Abstract

Semantic segmentation is one of the directions in image research. It aims to obtain the contours of objects of interest, facilitating subsequent engineering tasks such as measurement and feature selection. However, existing segmentation methods still lack precision in class edge, particularly in multi-class mixed region. To this end, we present the Feature Enhancement Network (FE-Net), a novel approach that leverages edge label and pixel-wise weights to enhance segmentation performance in complex backgrounds. Firstly, we propose a Smart Edge Head (SE-Head) to process shallow-level information from the backbone network. It is combined with the FCN-Head and SepASPP-Head, located at deeper layers, to form a transitional structure where the loss weights gradually transition from edge labels to semantic labels and a mixed loss is also designed to support this structure. Additionally, we propose a pixel-wise weight evaluation method, a pixel-wise weight block, and a feature enhancement loss to improve training effectiveness in multi-class regions. FE-Net achieves significant performance improvements over baselines on publicly datasets Pascal VOC2012, SBD, and ATR, with best mIoU enhancements of 15.19%, 1.42% and 3.51%, respectively. Furthermore, experiments conducted on Pole&Hole match dataset from our laboratory environment demonstrate the superior effectiveness of FE-Net in segmenting defined key pixels.

Keywords: Edge label; Key pixels; Multi-class mixed region; Pixel-wise weight; Semantic segmentation.