Deep Extrinsic Manifold Representation for Vision Tasks

Non-Euclidean data is frequently encountered across different fields, yet there is limited literature that addresses the fundamental challenge of training neural networks with manifold representations as outputs. We introduce the trick named Deep Extrinsic Manifold Representation (DEMR) for visual tasks in this context. DEMR incorporates extrinsic manifold embedding into deep neural networks, which helps generate manifold representations. The DEMR approach does not directly optimize the complex geodesic loss. Instead, it focuses on optimizing the computation graph within the embedded Euclidean space, allowing for adaptability to various architectural requirements. We provide empirical evidence supporting the proposed concept on two types of manifolds, SE(3) and its associated quotient manifolds. This evidence offers theoretical assurances regarding feasibility, asymptotic properties, and generalization capability. The experimental results show that DEMR effectively adapts to point cloud alignment, producing outputs in SE(3), as well as in illumination subspace learning with outputs on the Grassmann manifold.