How to Use the Segment Anything Model (SAM)
Blog post from Roboflow
Meta AI's Segment Anything Model (SAM) is a cutting-edge image segmentation tool that has shown significant improvements in precision and flexibility for computer vision tasks. Released in April 2023, SAM offers advanced capabilities to identify the exact shapes and positions of objects in images, surpassing traditional object detection methods that rely on bounding boxes. The model is open-source and features various encoders such as ViT-B, ViT-L, and ViT-H, each offering different levels of performance and speed. SAM's utility includes automated mask generation and conversion of object detection datasets into segmentation masks, enhancing dataset accuracy and usability with tools like Roboflow Annotate. The successor, Segment Anything 2 (SAM 2), launched in July 2024, reportedly delivers six times the accuracy of its predecessor. SAM's flexibility and high performance make it a valuable asset in computer vision applications, with options for deployment at scale using platforms like Roboflow Inference.