arXiv Computer Vision By Joana Konadu Owusu, Shivanand Venkanna Sheshappanavar

Object Counting Across Modalities: Taxonomies, Benchmarks, Applications, and Open Challenges

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The paper reviews the evolution of object‑counting techniques from class‑specific density regression to open‑vocabulary, foundation‑model‑backed counters that can handle visual and textual prompts. It highlights that current evaluation relies on a few saturated benchmarks, leading to models exploiting statistical regularities rather than true generalization. The authors propose a five‑axis taxonomy and audit the literature across domains such as microscopy, remote sensing, crowd counting, and agriculture, identifying six structural contradictions and outlining a roadmap for robust, multimodal evaluation protocols.

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