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Learning Where to Focus: Density-Driven Guidance for Detecting Dense Tiny Objects

delete2026-07-01
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PRE
AI
Z
Zhicheng Zhao
X
Xuanang Fan
L
Lingma Sun
李诚龙 cover
李诚龙 (Chenglong Li)
J
Jin Tang
DOI:10.1109/tgrs.2026.3708550delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
High-resolution remote sensing imagery increasingly contains dense clusters of tiny objects, the detection of which is extremely challenging due to severe mutual occlusion and limited pixel footprints. Existing detection methods typically allocate computational resources uniformly, failing to adaptively focus on these density-concentrated regions, which hinders feature learning effectiveness. To address these limitations, we propose the dense region mining network (DRMNet), which leverages density maps as explicit spatial priors to guide adaptive feature learning. First, we design a density generation branch (DGB) to model object distribution patterns, providing quantifiable priors that guide the network toward dense regions. Second, to address the computational bottleneck of global attention, our dense area focusing module (DAFM) uses these density maps to identify and focus on dense areas, enabling efficient local–global feature interaction. Finally, to mitigate feature degradation during hierarchical extraction, we introduce a dual filter fusion module (DFFM). It disentangles multiscale features into high- and low-frequency components using a discrete cosine transform and then performs density-guided cross-attention to enhance complementarity while suppressing background interference. Extensive experiments on the AI-TOD and DTOD datasets demonstrate that DRMNet surpasses state-of-the-art methods, particularly in complex scenarios with high object density and severe occlusion.
Keywords:
Density guidance
frequency enhancement
high-resolution imagery
spatial prior
tiny object detection

Journal

IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing cover
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
IF:
8.6
Papers:
2.1W
Citations:
10.7W

Organization

H
hefei university
Scholars:
2.2K
Papers: 1.2K
Citations: 20
A
anhui university
Scholars:
1.9W
Papers: 1.2W
Citations: 24