We introduce a new interpretation of the attention matrix as a discrete-time Markov chain. Our interpretation sheds light on common operations involving attention scores such as selection, summation, and averaging in a unified framework. It further extends them by considering indirect attention, propagated through the Markov chain, as opposed to previous studies that only model immediate effects. Our key observation is that tokens linked to semantically similar regions form metastable states, i.e., regions where attention tends to concentrate, while noisy attention scores dissipate. Metastable states and their prevalence can be easily computed through simple matrix multiplication and eigenanalysis, respectively. Using these lightweight tools, we demonstrate state-of-the-art zero-shot segmentation. Lastly, we define TokenRank---the steady state vector of the Markov chain, which measures global token importance. We show that TokenRank enhances unconditional image generation, improving both quality (IS) and diversity (FID), and can also be incorporated into existing segmentation techniques to improve their performance over existing benchmarks. We believe our framework offers a fresh view of how tokens are being attended in modern visual transformers.

Light control in generated images is a difficult task, posing specific challenges, spanning over the entire image and frequency spectrum. Most approaches tackle this problem by training on extensive yet domain-specific datasets, limiting the inherent generalization and applicability of the foundational backbones used. Instead, PractiLight is a practical approach, effectively leveraging foundational understanding of recent generative models for the task. Our key insight is that lighting relationships in an image are similar in nature to token interaction in self-attention layers, and hence are best represented there. Based on this and other analyses regarding the importance of early diffusion iterations, PractiLight trains a lightweight LoRA regressor to produce the direct-irradiance map for a given image, using a small set of training images. We then employ this regressor to incorporate the desired lighting into the generation process of another image using Classifier Guidance. This careful design generalizes well to diverse conditions and image domains. We demonstrate state-of-the-art performance in terms of quality and control with proven parameter and data efficiency compared to leading works over a wide variety of scene types. We hope this work affirms that image lighting can feasibly be controlled by tapping into foundational knowledge, enabling practical and general relighting.

We introduce a high resolution spatially adaptive light source, or a projector, into a neural reflectance field that allows to both calibrate the projector and photo realistic light editing. The projected texture is fully differentiable with respect to all scene parameters, and can be optimized to yield a desired appearance suitable for applications in augmented reality and projection mapping. Our neural field consists of three neural networks, estimating geometry, material, and transmittance. Using an analytical BRDF model and carefully selected projection patterns, our acquisition process is simple and intuitive, featuring a fixed uncalibrated projected and a handheld camera with a co-located light source. As we demonstrate, the virtual projector incorporated into the pipeline improves scene understanding and enables various projection mapping applications, alleviating the need for time consuming calibration steps performed in a traditional setting per view or projector location. In addition to enabling novel viewpoint synthesis, we demonstrate state-of-the-art performance projector compensation for novel viewpoints, improvement over the baselines in material and scene reconstruction, and three simply implemented scenarios where projection image optimization is performed, including the use of a 2D generative model to consistently dictate scene appearance from multiple viewpoints. We believe that neural projection mapping opens up the door to novel and exciting downstream tasks, through the joint optimization of the scene and projection images.