| --- |
| pretty_name: CIRCUS |
| license: other |
| task_categories: |
| - other |
| language: |
| - en |
| tags: |
| - composed-image-retrieval |
| - multimodal-retrieval |
| - benchmark-audit |
| - multimodal-composition |
| configs: |
| - config_name: cirr |
| data_files: |
| - split: full |
| path: data/cirr/full.parquet |
| - split: shortcut_free |
| path: data/cirr/shortcut_free.parquet |
| - split: human_audited |
| path: data/cirr/human_audited.parquet |
| - split: validated |
| path: data/cirr/validated.parquet |
| - config_name: fashioniq |
| data_files: |
| - split: full |
| path: data/fashioniq/full.parquet |
| - split: shortcut_free |
| path: data/fashioniq/shortcut_free.parquet |
| - split: human_audited |
| path: data/fashioniq/human_audited.parquet |
| - split: validated |
| path: data/fashioniq/validated.parquet |
| - config_name: lasco |
| data_files: |
| - split: full |
| path: data/lasco/full.parquet |
| - split: shortcut_free |
| path: data/lasco/shortcut_free.parquet |
| - split: human_audited |
| path: data/lasco/human_audited.parquet |
| - split: validated |
| path: data/lasco/validated.parquet |
| - config_name: circo |
| data_files: |
| - split: full |
| path: data/circo/full.parquet |
| - split: shortcut_free |
| path: data/circo/shortcut_free.parquet |
| - split: human_audited |
| path: data/circo/human_audited.parquet |
| - split: validated |
| path: data/circo/validated.parquet |
| --- |
| |
| # CIRCUS |
|
|
| CIRCUS (Composed Image Retrieval Cleaned of Unimodal Shortcuts) is a |
| metadata-only diagnostic resource accompanying **Do Composed Image Retrieval |
| Benchmarks Require Multimodal Composition?** It audits CIRR, FashionIQ, LaSCo, |
| and CIRCO for unimodal shortcuts and validates a subset of shortcut-free queries. |
|
|
| ## Loading |
|
|
| ```python |
| from datasets import load_dataset |
| |
| validated = load_dataset( |
| "EdinburghNLP/CIRCUS", |
| "cirr", |
| split="validated", |
| revision="v1.0", |
| ) |
| shortcut_free = load_dataset( |
| "EdinburghNLP/CIRCUS", |
| "cirr", |
| split="shortcut_free", |
| revision="v1.0", |
| ) |
| ``` |
|
|
| Available configurations are `cirr`, `fashioniq`, `lasco`, and `circo`. Each |
| configuration has four splits: |
|
|
| - `full`: all original benchmark evaluation queries with automatic audit labels. |
| - `shortcut_free`: all queries not solved by any evaluated unimodal |
| configuration at `K=10`; this includes both composition-required and |
| unresolved queries (CIRCUS-SF). |
| - `human_audited`: shortcut-free queries inspected during manual validity |
| annotation, including both valid and rejected instances. |
| - `validated`: the human-audited queries judged to be valid CIR instances and |
| retained in CIRCUSV. |
|
|
| | Dataset | Full | Shortcut-free | Human-audited | Validated | |
| |---|---:|---:|---:|---:| |
| | CIRR | 4,170 | 685 | 685 | 303 | |
| | FashionIQ | 6,003 | 4,069 | 2,000 | 586 | |
| | LaSCo | 30,031 | 18,418 | 2,000 | 758 | |
| | CIRCO | 220 | 56 | 56 | 42 | |
| | **Total** | **40,424** | **23,228** | **4,741** | **1,689** | |
|
|
| For FashionIQ and LaSCo, human validation uses stratified samples of 1,000 |
| composition-required and 1,000 unresolved queries per dataset. Their validated |
| splits are therefore validated diagnostic subsets, not complete cleanings of the |
| full shortcut-free residues. |
|
|
| ## Images and source datasets |
|
|
| This repository does not contain or redistribute images. Image paths are |
| portable identifiers relative to the corresponding source dataset. Users must |
| obtain CIRR, FashionIQ, LaSCo, and CIRCO from their official sources and comply |
| with each dataset's terms. |
|
|
| The source datasets use different licenses and terms, including MIT-style terms |
| for CIRR and LaSCo annotations, the Community Data License Agreement for |
| FashionIQ, and CC BY-NC 4.0 for CIRCO. Underlying NLVR2 and COCO images remain |
| subject to their original terms. The `other` license marker reflects this mixed |
| provenance; it is not a relicensing of source data. |
|
|
| ## Audit labels |
|
|
| At `audit_k=10`, a query is labelled `shortcut` when at least one evaluated |
| unimodal configuration retrieves an annotated positive in the top 10. A |
| shortcut-free query is `composition_required` when a multimodal configuration |
| succeeds, and `unresolved` when no evaluated multimodal configuration succeeds. |
| These are operational benchmark labels and do not imply that shortcut-labelled |
| queries are invalid. |
|
|
| ## Limitations |
|
|
| CIRCUSV is intended as a diagnostic of multimodal dependence, not a complete |
| replacement for the original benchmarks. Human validation is complete for the |
| CIRR and CIRCO shortcut-free residues but sampled for FashionIQ and LaSCo. The |
| resource is metadata-only and requires separately downloaded source images. |
|
|
| ## Citation |
|
|
| ```bibtex |
| @inproceedings{attimonelli2026circus, |
| title={Do Composed Image Retrieval Benchmarks Require Multimodal Composition?}, |
| author={Attimonelli, Matteo and De Bellis, Alessandro and Gema, Aryo Pradipta and Saxena, Rohit and Sekoyan, Monica and Kwan, Wai-Chung and Pomo, Claudio and Suglia, Alessandro and Jannach, Dietmar and Di Noia, Tommaso and Minervini, Pasquale}, |
| booktitle={Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems}, |
| year={2026} |
| } |
| ``` |
|
|
| Code and additional documentation: |
| <https://github.com/EdinburghNLP/CIRCUS> |
|
|
