aiqbench analysis
This research introduces DGCM-AVS, a tri-modal framework that integrates depth estimation to enhance audio-visual segmentation by addressing geometric cues like occlusion and relative distance. By using depth as an intermediate bridge for progressive fusion, the model achieves significant performance gains on the AVSS dataset compared to existing state-of-the-art methods. The study underscores the potential of incorporating spatial structural information into multimodal perception systems for tasks ranging from video understanding to autonomous driving.
Audio-Visual Segmentation via Depth-Guided Collaborative Modeling
arXiv:2608.16285v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Audio-Visual Segmentation (AVS) is a fundamental task in multimodal perception that performs pixel-level segmentation of sounding objects in videos by leveraging both visual and audio cues. It has broad applications in video understanding, human-computer interaction, and autonomous driving. However, most existing AVS methods do not explicitly model geometric cues such as relative distance and occlusion, thereby limiting the robustness of cross-modal alignment. In human perception, spatial structure is naturally integrated with audio-visual evidence to accurately localize sounding objects. Motivated by this, we incorporate estimated depth as a spatial structural cue for AVS and propose DGCM-AVS, a tri-modal framework that jointly models audio, visual, and depth information. Specifically, we design a Depth-Aware Dynamic Modulator to improve the separation of adjacent objects while preserving intra-object feature consistency. Furthermore, we propose Depth-Guided Progressive Fusion, which uses depth as an intermediate bridge to progressively align audio cues with visual features. Compared to state-of-the-art methods, DGCM-AVS achieves relative improvements of 10.2 percent in M_J and 8.7 percent in M_F on the AVSS dataset. We believe our study highlights depth as a promising yet underexplored modality for AVS and may encourage further research in this direction.
Abstract:Audio-Visual Segmentation (AVS) is a fundamental task in multimodal perception that performs pixel-level segmentation of sounding objects in videos by leveraging both visual and audio cues. It has broad applications in video understanding, human-computer interaction, and autonomous driving. However, most existing AVS methods do not explicitly model geometric cues such as relative distance and occlusion, thereby limiting the robustness of cross-modal alignment. In human perception, spatial structure is naturally integrated with audio-visual evidence to accurately localize sounding objects. Motivated by this, we incorporate estimated depth as a spatial structural cue for AVS and propose DGCM-AVS, a tri-modal framework that jointly models audio, visual, and depth information. Specifically, we design a Depth-Aware Dynamic Modulator to improve the separation of adjacent objects while preserving intra-object feature consistency. Furthermore, we propose Depth-Guided Progressive Fusion, which uses depth as an intermediate bridge to progressively align audio cues with visual features. Compared to state-of-the-art methods, DGCM-AVS achieves relative improvements of 10.2 percent in M_J and 8.7 percent in M_F on the AVSS dataset. We believe our study highlights depth as a promising yet underexplored modality for AVS and may encourage further research in this direction.
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI)
arXiv:2608.16285 [cs.CV]
(or arXiv:2608.16285v1 [cs.CV] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.16285 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
https://doi.org/10.1109/TMM.2026.3705199 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources
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.
Full text under the publisher's open licence · 300 words
Related coverage

Runway’s WorldPrompt and the Engineering of Real-Time Worlds
Latent Space · Sep 25, 2026

The Machines that Make the Machines
NVIDIA · Oct 7, 2026
Bridging Traditional Explainability Methods and Multimodal Multilingual Models: An XAI-Based Analysis
arXiv · Jun 9, 2026

100 things we announced at I/O 2026
Google · May 20, 2026