Teacher–Student Model Using Grounding DINO and You Only Look Once for Multi-Sensor-Based Object Detection

Object detection is a crucial research topic in the fields of computer vision and artificial intelligence, involving the identification and classification of objects within images. Recent advancements in deep learning technologies, such as YOLO (You Only Look Once), Faster-R-CNN, and SSDs (Single Shot Detectors), have demonstrated high performance in object detection. This study utilizes the YOLOv8 model for real-time object detection in environments requiring fast inference speeds, specifically in CCTV and automotive dashcam scenarios. Experiments were conducted using the ‘Multi-Image Identical Situation and Object Identification Data’ provided by AI Hub, consisting of multi-image datasets captured in identical situations using CCTV, dashcams, and smartphones. Object detection experiments were performed on three types of multi-image datasets captured in identical situations. Despite the utility of YOLO, there is a need for performance improvement in the AI Hub dataset. Grounding DINO, a zero-shot object detector with a high mAP performance, is employed. While efficient auto-labeling is possible with Grounding DINO, its processing speed is slower than YOLO, making it unsuitable for real-time object detection scenarios. This study conducts object detection experiments using publicly available labels and utilizes Grounding DINO as a teacher model for auto-labeling. The generated labels are then used to train YOLO as a student model, and performance is compared and analyzed. Experimental results demonstrate that using auto-generated labels for object detection does not lead to degradation in performance. The combination of auto-labeling and manual labeling significantly enhances performance. Additionally, an analysis of datasets containing data from various devices, including CCTV, dashcams, and smartphones, reveals the impact of different device types on the recognition accuracy for distinct devices. Through Grounding DINO, this study proves the efficacy of auto-labeling technology in contributing to efficiency and performance enhancement in the field of object detection, presenting practical applicability.