Abstract:Extrapolation beyond LiDAR coverage is an important yet under-evaluated challenge of depth completion. In real camera--LiDAR systems, partial sensor overlap, occlusions, and limited field coverage often leave large image regions weakly observed or completely unobserved by LiDAR. Thus, we investigate depth completion in this beyond-coverage regime using only sparse supervision from raw single-sweep LiDAR, without dense depth labels, LiDAR accumulation, or pseudo-LiDAR generation. Our approach leverages a frozen monocular depth foundation model, lightweight per-frame alignment to sparse LiDAR geometry, and a refinement module that fuses the aligned prior with sparse LiDAR anchors to predict dense metric depth. To regularize learning under raw sparse supervision, we introduce a high-frequency normal-consistency loss defined as the image-space gradient of the per-pixel normal cosine discrepancy. This term penalizes spatial variation in scalar angular error; it does not directly match changes in neighboring normal vectors. We further introduce an evaluation protocol that explicitly separates LiDAR-supported and beyond-coverage regions, revealing extrapolative behavior that conventional depth-completion metrics can obscure. Our method achieves strong depth accuracy beyond LiDAR coverage while remaining competitive in LiDAR-covered regions, providing a practical way to deploy monocular foundation priors in multi-sensor systems. Submission history Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source Additional Features Audio Summary Current browse context: References & Citations Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Bookmark Institution arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.
AI NEWS JOURNAL
arXiv cs.CVAI NEWS / JOURNAL
Extrapolation Matters: Sparse-Only Depth Completion Beyond LiDAR Coverage
arXiv:2611.08782v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Extrapolation beyond LiDAR coverage is an important yet under-evaluated challenge of depth completion. In real camera--LiDAR systems, partial sensor overlap, occlusions, and limited field coverage often leave large image regions weakly observed or completely unobserved by LiDAR. Thus, we investigate depth completion in this beyond-coverage regime using only sparse supervision from raw single-sweep LiDAR, without dense depth labels, LiDAR accumulation, or pseudo-LiDAR generation. Our approach leverages a frozen monocular depth foundation model, lightweight per-frame alignment to sparse LiDAR geometry, and a refinement module that fuses the aligned prior with sparse LiDAR anchors to predict dense metric depth. To regularize learning under raw sparse supervision, we introduce a high-frequency normal-consistency loss defined as the image-space gradient of the per-pixel normal cosine discrepancy. This term penalizes spatial variation in scalar angular error; it does not directly match changes in neighboring normal vectors. We further introduce an evaluation protocol that explicitly separates LiDAR-supported and beyond-coverage regions, revealing extrapolative behavior that conventional depth-completion metrics can obscure. Our method achieves strong depth accuracy beyond LiDAR coverage while remaining competitive in LiDAR-covered regions, providing a practical way to deploy monocular foundation priors in multi-sensor systems.
翻訳サービスが停止中のため原文を表示しています。