arXiv · 2507.00462
Unleashing the Potential of All Test Samples: Mean-Shift Guided Test-Time Adaptation
Abstract
Visual-language models (VLMs) like CLIP exhibit strong generalization but struggle with distribution shifts at test time. Existing training-free test-time adaptation (TTA) methods operate strictly within CLIP's original feature space, relying on high-confidence samples while overlooking the potential of low-confidence ones. We propose MS-TTA, a training-free approach that enhances feature representations beyond CLIP's space using a single-step k-nearest neighbors (kNN) Mean-Shift. By refining all test samples, MS-TTA improves feature compactness and class separability, leading to more stable adaptation. Additionally, a cache of refined embeddings further enhances inference by providing Mean Shift enhanced logits. Extensive evaluations on OOD and cross-dataset benchmarks demonstrate that MS-TTA consistently outperforms state-of-the-art training-free TTA methods, achieving robust adaptation without requiring additional training.
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Jizhou Han, Chenhao Ding, SongLin Dong, Yuhang He, Xinyuan Gao, Yihong Gong. 2025-07-01. Unleashing the Potential of All Test Samples: Mean-Shift Guided Test-Time Adaptation. https://doi.org/10.1109/tcsvt.2026.3676383
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