EfficientDepth: A Fast and Detail-Preserving Monocular Depth Estimation Model

Abstract: Monocular depth estimation (MDE) plays a pivotal role in various computer vision applications, such as robotics, augmented reality, and autonomous driving. Despite recent advancements, existing methods often fail to meet key requirements for 3D reconstruction and view synthesis, including geometric consistency, fine details, robustness to real-world challenges like reflective surfaces, and efficiency for edge devices. To address these challenges, we introduce a novel MDE system, called EfficientDepth, which combines a transformer architecture with a lightweight convolutional decoder, as well as a bimodal density head that allows the network to estimate detailed depth maps. We train our model on a combination of labeled synthetic and real images, as well as pseudo-labeled real images, generated using a high-performing MDE method. Furthermore, we employ a multi-stage optimization strategy to improve training efficiency and produce models that emphasize geometric consistency and fine detail. Finally, in addition to commonly used objectives, we introduce a loss function based on LPIPS to encourage the network to produce detailed depth maps. Experimental results demonstrate that EfficientDepth achieves performance comparable to or better than existing state-of-the-art models, with significantly reduced computational resources.