arXiv:2504.09341cs.LGcs.CV2025-04

通过剔除少数错误标注,减少60%以上标注工作量,兼顾成本与质量。

Minority Reports: Balancing Cost and Quality in Ground Truth Data Annotation

  • 基于标注者对多数意见的偏离概率,预判并删减冗余任务。
  • 实测可降低60%以上标注量,仅轻微牺牲标签质量。
  • 适合预算有限但需高精度数据的场景,如自动驾驶。

高质量数据标注是机器学习软件开发中不可或缺但耗时且昂贵的环节。本文通过识别和移除标注中的少数错误报告(即标注者给出错误答案的实例),揭示了任务分配中的冗余问题。提出一种在任务执行前预测标注者可能偏离多数投票概率的方法,以裁剪潜在冗余任务。该方法基于专业标注平台在计算机视觉数据集上的实证分析,发现少数报告的发生率主要受图像模糊性、标注员差异性和疲劳度影响。在这些数据集上的模拟显示,可在标签质量小幅下降的情况下,将所需标注数减少超过60%,相当于节省约6.6天的人力工时。该方法为标注服务平台提供了平衡成本与数据质量的策略,使机器学习从业者可根据应用需求灵活调整标注精度,优化预算分配,同时保障自动驾驶等关键场景的数据质量。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

High-quality data annotation is an essential but laborious and costly aspect of developing machine learning-based software. We explore the inherent tradeoff between annotation accuracy and cost by detecting and removing minority reports -- instances where annotators provide incorrect responses -- that indicate unnecessary redundancy in task assignments. We propose an approach to prune potentially redundant annotation task assignments before they are executed by estimating the likelihood of an annotator disagreeing with the majority vote for a given task. Our approach is informed by an empirical analysis over computer vision datasets annotated by a professional data annotation platform, which reveals that the likelihood of a minority report event is dependent primarily on image ambiguity, worker variability, and worker fatigue. Simulations over these datasets show that we can reduce the number of annotations required by over 60% with a small compromise in label quality, saving approximately 6.6 days-equivalent of labor. Our approach provides annotation service platforms with a method to balance cost and dataset quality. Machine learning practitioners can tailor annotation accuracy levels according to specific application needs, thereby optimizing budget allocation while maintaining the data quality necessary for critical settings like autonomous driving technology.

数据标注成本优化质量控制

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