Strong supervision from weak annotation: Interactive training of deformable part models

We propose a framework for large scale learning and annotation of structured models. The system interleaves interactive labeling (where the current model is used to semi-automate the labeling of a new example) and online learning (where a newly labeled example is used to update the current model parameters). This framework is scalable to large datasets and complex image models and is shown to have excellent theoretical and practical properties in terms of train time, optimality guarantees, and bounds on the amount of annotation effort per image. We apply this framework to part-based detection, and introduce a novel algorithm for interactive labeling of deformable part models. The labeling tool updates and displays in real-time the maximum likelihood location of all parts as the user clicks and drags the location of one or more parts. We demonstrate that the system can be used to efficiently and robustly train part and pose detectors on the CUB Birds-200-a challenging dataset of birds in unconstrained pose and environment.