Joint hierarchical learning for efficient multi-class object detection

In addition to multi-class classification, the multi-class object detection task consists further in classifying a dominating background label. In this work, we present a novel approach where relevant classes are ranked higher and background labels are rejected. To this end, we arrange the classes into a tree structure where the classifiers are trained in a joint framework combining ranking and classification constraints. Our convex problem formulation naturally allows to apply a tree traversal algorithm that searches for the best class label and progressively rejects background labels. We evaluate our approach on the PASCAL VOC 2007 dataset and show a considerable speed-up of the detection time with increased detection performance.