What are the current major limitations of computer vision?

Computer vision faces several significant limitations today, primarily related to data requirements, computational constraints, and robustness in real-world scenarios. While advancements in deep learning have improved performance, practical deployment still encounters hurdles that developers must navigate.

First, computer vision models rely heavily on large volumes of labeled training data. Collecting and annotating datasets is time-consuming and costly, especially for niche applications. For example, medical imaging models require expert-labeled X-rays or MRIs, which are scarce and expensive to produce. Even when data is available, biases in training data can lead to poor generalization. A model trained primarily on images of cars from sunny climates might struggle in foggy or snowy conditions, creating reliability issues for autonomous vehicles. Techniques like synthetic data generation or transfer learning help mitigate this but often introduce new trade-offs in accuracy.

Second, computational demands limit real-time performance and deployment on edge devices. High-resolution image processing requires substantial memory and processing power, making it challenging to run models efficiently on smartphones or embedded systems. For instance, object detection in 4K video feeds for surveillance systems often requires sacrificing accuracy for speed through model compression or quantization. Developers must balance latency, power consumption, and accuracy—a problem exacerbated by the growing complexity of architectures like transformers, which are powerful but resource-intensive.

Third, models struggle with robustness to environmental variations and adversarial conditions. Changes in lighting, occlusions, or unusual angles can drastically reduce accuracy. A facial recognition system might fail if a user wears a hat or stands in low light. Additionally, adversarial attacks—small, intentional perturbations to input data—can deceive models. For example, subtly modified road signs could mislead autonomous vehicles. While techniques like data augmentation and adversarial training improve resilience, they don’t fully eliminate vulnerabilities. These limitations are particularly critical in safety-sensitive applications like healthcare or robotics, where failures carry significant consequences. Developers must implement rigorous testing and fallback mechanisms to address these gaps.