Structure over Pixels: Learning Variable-Length Visual Programs

Abstract:Discrete visual tokenizers map images to ordered sequences of tokens, providing a natural representation for structural scene descriptions. Most use a fixed sequence length, while adaptive methods often require post-hoc search or choose among a small set of rates that control the length. We propose STROP, a discrete tokenizer that learns both a visual program and its image-dependent active length. A length head is trained with a four-phase curriculum using local rate-distortion probes against frozen DINOv3 features, then predicts the active prefix in a single forward pass. At a matched rate of about $250$ nominal bits per crop, the adaptive model improves segmentation over a separately trained fixed-length baseline on four benchmarks (by $1.6$-$3.1$ mIoU), and it also beats a fixed $K{=}32$ baseline that uses more bits. STROP programs also yield higher segmentation mIoU than FlexTok, One-D-Piece, and ALIT at similar or higher rates, under the same readout architecture and training protocol. STROP therefore learns useful per-image sequence lengths without post-hoc search or a predefined set of compression rates.

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV); Machine Learning (cs.LG)

arXiv:2605.27696 [cs.CV]

(or arXiv:2605.27696v3 [cs.CV] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.27696 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

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.