用外部模型指导神经网络持续适应分布变化,避免错误累积。
Test-Time Distillation for Continual Model Adaptation
- 以冻结的视觉语言模型为外部信号,将适应过程重构为知识蒸馏。
- 在ImageNet-C上比最优基线高10.55%,仅需48%的时间成本。
- 新方法解决模型融合偏差问题,适合部署后持续优化的场景。
深度神经网络在部署后常因数据分布漂移导致性能下降。持续测试时自适应(CTTA)旨在无监督下解决此问题,但现有基于自监督的方法易陷入自我强化的反馈循环,放大初始预测误差,引发模型漂移。本文重新审视该局限,提出测试时蒸馏(TTD),将适应视为由冻结的视觉-语言模型(VLM)提供外部信号的蒸馏过程。然而,直接蒸馏面临两大挑战:(1) 通用陷阱——VLM虽具广泛知识但缺乏针对性,导致特定任务表现不佳;(2) 熵偏差——基于熵的模型融合方法因异构模型校准差异而失效。为此,本文提出持续蒸馏与校正框架CoDiRe:首先动态融合VLM与目标模型的预测,构建鲁棒混合教师;关键在于使用最大softmax概率(MSP)作为更可靠的置信度指标,规避熵偏差;随后采用基于最优传输的校正机制,进一步对齐预测结果,实现持续稳定适应。大量实验表明,CoDiRe显著优于现有基线,在ImageNet-C上超越CoTTA达10.55%,且仅需其48%时间成本。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Deep neural networks often suffer performance degradation upon deployment due to distribution shifts. Continual Test-Time Adaptation (CTTA) aims to address this issue in an unsupervised manner. However, existing methods that rely on self-supervision are prone to an inherent self-referential feedback loop that amplifies initial prediction errors, leading to model drift. We revisit this limitation and propose Test-Time Distillation (TTD), which reframes adaptation as a distillation process guided by a frozen Vision-Language Model (VLM) as an external signal. While promising, we find that direct distillation is fraught with two pitfalls: (1) the Generalist Trap, where the VLM's broad but non-specialized knowledge leads to suboptimal performance on specific tasks and shifts; and (2) the Entropy Bias, where naive model fusion techniques based on entropy fail due to the disparate calibration of heterogeneous models. These pitfalls highlight the need to build a robust supervisory signal and leverage it to guide the target model toward stable adaptation. Hence, we present CoDiRe, a Continual Distillation and Rectification framework for TTD. CoDiRe first constructs a robust blended teacher by dynamically fusing the predictions of the VLM and the target model. Critically, it circumvents the Entropy Bias by leveraging Maximum Softmax Probability (MSP) as a more reliable confidence metric for weighting each model's expertise. Then it applies an Optimal Transport-based rectification to further align predictions with the blended teacher, enabling continuous and stable adaptation. Extensive experiments show that CoDiRe outperforms state-of-the-art baselines, exceeding CoTTA by 10.55% with only 48% of its time cost on ImageNet-C. Project page is publicly available at https://github.com/walawalagoose/TTD.
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