US Patent 11068747 Computer architecture for object detection using point-wise labels

A neural network apparatus includes processing circuitry and memory. The memory stores a plurality of images of a target. The processing circuitry is configured to: access, from the memory, a first image and an identification of a centroid pixel of the target within the first image; generate, based on a geometry of the target and the centroid pixel, a confidence map indicating, for each pixel in the first image, a confidence value that the pixel includes the target; train, using the plurality of images of the target, including the first image and the confidence map, an artificial neural network to identify the target in visual data; and provide an output representing the trained artificial neural network.