In-Depth Analysis of GAF-Net: Comparative Fusion Approaches in Video-Based Person Re-Identification

This study provides an in-depth analysis of GAF-Net, a novel model for video-based person re-identification (Re-ID) that matches individuals across different video sequences. GAF-Net combines appearance-based features with gait-based features derived from skeletal data, offering a new approach that diverges from traditional silhouette-based methods. We thoroughly examine each module of GAF-Net and explore various fusion methods at the both score and feature levels, extending beyond initial simple concatenation. Comprehensive evaluations on the iLIDS-VID and MARS datasets demonstrate GAF-Net’s effectiveness across scenarios. GAF-Net achieves state-of-the-art 93.2% rank-1 accuracy on iLIDS-VID’s long sequences, while MARS results (86.09% mAP, 89.78% rank-1) reveal challenges with shorter, variable sequences in complex real-world settings. We demonstrate that integrating skeleton-based gait features consistently improves Re-ID performance, particularly with long, more informative sequences. This research provides crucial insights into multi-modal feature integration in Re-ID tasks, laying a foundation for the advancement of multi-modal biometric systems for diverse computer vision applications.