InfiMM-HD: A Leap Forward in High-Resolution Multimodal Understanding
(2403.01487)Abstract
Multimodal LLMs (MLLMs) have experienced significant advancements recently. Nevertheless, challenges persist in the accurate recognition and comprehension of intricate details within high-resolution images. Despite being indispensable for the development of robust MLLMs, this area remains underinvestigated. To tackle this challenge, our work introduces InfiMM-HD, a novel architecture specifically designed for processing images of different resolutions with low computational overhead. This innovation facilitates the enlargement of MLLMs to higher-resolution capabilities. InfiMM-HD incorporates a cross-attention module and visual windows to reduce computation costs. By integrating this architectural design with a four-stage training pipeline, our model attains improved visual perception efficiently and cost-effectively. Empirical study underscores the robustness and effectiveness of InfiMM-HD, opening new avenues for exploration in related areas. Codes and models can be found at https://huggingface.co/Infi-MM/infimm-hd
Overview
-
InfiMM-HD introduces an innovative Multimodal Large Language Model architecture designed to efficiently process high-resolution images, addressing a key gap in visual and textual data integration.
-
The model features a cross-attention module for seamless modality integration and visual windows to manage computational costs, marking an advancement in handling detailed visual data.
-
A four-stage training pipeline enhances the model's high-resolution image processing capabilities, from pretraining and knowledge alignment to dynamic resolution adaptation and visual instruction fine-tuning.
-
Empirical evaluations demonstrate InfiMM-HD's superior performance in tasks requiring fine-grained visual perception, setting a promising direction for future MLLM research and practical applications.
InfiMM-HD: Enhancing Multimodal LLMs with High-Resolution Image Processing
Introduction to InfiMM-HD
The domain of Multimodal LLMs (MLLMs) has witnessed significant strides, particularly in integrating visual cues with textual understanding. However, a notable gap persists in these models' ability to parse and comprehend high-resolution images, which are crucial for a wide range of applications requiring detailed visual insights. Addressing this issue, the paper introduces InfiMM-HD, an innovative MLLM architecture tailored for processing images across various resolutions, with a particular emphasis on high-resolution imagery. This model stands out due to its meticulous design, incorporating a cross-attention module and visual windows for efficient computation, ensuring low overhead even when handling more elaborate visual data.
Key Contributions and Architectural Innovations
InfiMM-HD's Novel Architecture
- Cross-Attention Module: At the heart of InfiMM-HD is the use of a cross-attention mechanism, which plays a pivotal role in seamlessly integrating visual and textual modalities. Unlike prior approaches relying heavily on MLPs (Multi-Layer Perceptrons) for token transformation and alignment, this model adopts an architecture that balances computational efficiency with the richness of information processing.
- Visual Windows for Computational Efficiency: To counter the rapidly escalating computation costs associated with processing higher-resolution images, InfiMM-HD leverages visual windows. This strategic partition of images into sub-images, paired with shared Vision Transformer (ViT) processing, marks a significant step forward in efficiently managing high-resolution inputs.
Four-Stage Training Pipeline
A distinguishing feature of InfiMM-HD is its meticulously crafted four-stage training pipeline, designed to gradually enhance the model's proficiency in high-resolution image handling:
- Pretraining with Image Resolution Upscaling: The initial stages focus on aligning vision and language features using standard resolutions, gradually moving to higher resolutions.
- Knowledge Injection and Alignment with Cross-Attention Module Training: Subsequent stages involve the training of the cross-attention mechanism, further refining the model's capability to integrate detailed visual information.
- Dynamic Resolution Adaptation for High-Resolution Handling: A key innovation here is the ability to adaptively process a range of resolutions, significantly reducing the training and computational costs.
- Visual Instruction Fine-Tuning: The final phase of training sharpens the model's ability to follow visual instructions precisely, enhancing its applicability across various tasks.
Empirical Evaluation and Implications
InfiMM-HD exhibits superior performance across multiple benchmarks, showcasing its ability to process high-resolution images without compromising efficiency or accuracy. The model's structure and training methodology present a promising avenue for future research in enhancing MLLMs for detailed visual perception.
- The extensive empirical study underscores the robustness of InfiMM-HD, particularly in its adeptness at fine-grained visual perception, as demonstrated through superior results in downstream tasks like TextVQA and DocVQA.
Theoretical and Practical Implications
The introduction of InfiMM-HD not only addresses a crucial gap in MLLM capabilities but also sets a new direction for future research in the field. On a theoretical level, it proposes an effective architecture and training scheme for integrating high-resolution images in MLLMs, expanding our understanding of multimodal learning.
Practically, the model's enhanced visual perception capabilities open new possibilities in applications requiring detailed image analysis, from medical imaging to surveillance and beyond. Additionally, InfiMM-HD's efficient computation model makes high-resolution image processing more accessible, potentially broadening the scope for real-world applications of MLLMs.
Concluding Remarks
InfiMM-HD represents a significant leap forward in the realm of MLLMs, combining high-resolution image processing capabilities with computational efficiency. Its innovative architecture, coupled with a strategic training pipeline, offers a practical solution to the challenges of integrating detailed visual data into multimodal learning models. As such, InfiMM-HD not only advances the field of MLLMs but also lays the groundwork for future explorations into more sophisticated and efficient multimodal learning systems.