Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection

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Overview

Zero-shot anomaly detection asks whether a model can flag, and often localize, patterns that depart from normality in a new domain without target-specific anomaly labels or training. Common approaches reuse frozen vision-language or vision foundation models with prompts, normal-reference comparisons, and patch or feature distances; others use geometric or frequency cues, lightweight adapters, or multimodal reasoning across images, video, 3D scans, time series, and graphs. Evaluation spans industrial defect benchmarks such as MVTec AD and VisA, surveillance video such as UCF-Crime, and medical, graph, and sensor data, using detection and localization metrics. A central tension is transferring to genuinely unseen anomaly types while balancing auxiliary data or prompt tuning against precise localization, calibrated recall, and practical inference cost.

Latest papers

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85 papers6 papers in the last four weeks, down 25% on the four weeks before. 0.0% of all new papers.

  1. Zero-Shot Retail Theft Detection via Orchestrated Vision Models: A Model-Agnostic, Cost-Effective Alternative to Trained Single-Model Systems

    Apr 16, 2026Haileab YagersewVideo Anomaly DetectionZero-Shot Anomaly Detection

    Paza AI Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

  2. LLM-Enhanced Log Anomaly Detection: A Comprehensive Benchmark of Large Language Models for Automated System Diagnostics

    Apr 14, 2026Disha PatelAnomaly DetectionOnline Anomaly Detection

    Department of Computer Science, California State University, Fullerton

  3. Latent Anomaly Knowledge Excavation: Unveiling Sparse Sensitive Neurons in Vision-Language Models

    Apr 9, 2026Shaotian Li, Shangze Li, Chuancheng Shi +5Multimodal Anomaly DetectionZero-Shot Anomaly Detection

    Macquarie University · Nanjing University of Science and Technology · The University of Sydney +1

  4. QVAD: A Question-Centric Agentic Framework for Efficient and Training-Free Video Anomaly Detection

    Apr 3, 2026Lokman Bekit, Hamza Karim, Nghia T Nguyen +1Video Anomaly DetectionZero-Shot Anomaly Detection

    Department of Electrical Engineering, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, USA.

  5. SPG: Sparse-Projected Guides with Sparse Autoencoders for Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection

    Apr 3, 2026Tomoyasu Nanaumi, Yukino Tsuzuki, Junichi Okubo +2Zero-Shot Anomaly DetectionInterpretable Anomaly Detection

    Yachiyo Engineering Co., Ltd., Japan · Chubu University, Japan

  6. The Geometry of Harmful Intent: Training-Free Anomaly Detection via Angular Deviation in LLM Residual Streams

    Mar 28, 2026Isaac Llorente-SaguerAnomaly DetectionLanguage Model Safety Evaluation

    Independent Researcher

  7. GridVAD: Open-Set Video Anomaly Detection via Spatial Reasoning over Stratified Frame Grids

    Mar 26, 2026Mohamed Eltahir, Ahmed O. Ibrahim, Obada Siralkhatim +2Video Anomaly DetectionTraining-Free Video Anomaly Detection

    King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia · African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), Cape Town, South Africa · Independent Researcher +1

  8. Back to Point: Exploring Point-Language Models for Zero-Shot 3D Anomaly Detection

    Mar 23, 2026Kaiqiang Li, Gang Li, Mingle Zhou +3Point Cloud Anomaly DetectionIndustrial Inspection

    Key Laboratory of Computing Power Network and Information Security, Ministry of Education, Shandong Computer Science Center (National Supercomputer Center in Jinan), Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan, China. · Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Computing Power Internet and Service Computing, Shandong Fundamental Research Center for Computer Science, Jinan, China.

  9. FB-CLIP: Fine-Grained Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection with Foreground-Background Disentanglement

    Mar 20, 2026Ming Hu, Yongsheng Huo, Mingyu Dou +6Zero-Shot Anomaly DetectionAnomaly Detection

    Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences · University of Chinese Academy of Sciences · Xi’an Jiaotong University +1

  10. FoMo X: Modular Explainability Signals for Outlier Detection Foundation Models

    Mar 18, 2026Simon Klüttermann, Tim Katzke, Phuong Huong Nguyen +1Interpretable Anomaly DetectionUnsupervised Anomaly Detection

    TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany · Research Center Trustworthy Data Science and Security, University Alliance Ruhr, Dortmund, Germany

  11. Towards Cognitive Defect Analysis in Active Infrared Thermography with Vision-Text Cues

    Mar 11, 2026Mohammed Salah, Eman Ouda, Giuseppe Dell'Avvocato +6Fault DetectionThermal Imaging

  12. VisualAD: Language-Free Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection via Vision Transformer

    Mar 9, 2026Yanning Hou, Peiyuan Li, Zirui Liu +4Zero-Shot Anomaly DetectionVision Foundation Model Adaptation

    College of Intelligence Science and Technology, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China · School of Artificial Intelligence, Anhui University, Hefei, China · State Key Laboratory of Opto-Electronic Information Acquisition and Protection Technology, Anhui University, Hefei, China

  13. WMoE-CLIP: Wavelet-Enhanced Mixture-of-Experts Prompt Learning for Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection

    Mar 6, 2026Peng Chen, Chao HuangPrompt Learning for VLMsZero-Shot Anomaly Detection

    School of Cyber Science and Technology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen

  14. Are Multimodal LLMs Ready for Surveillance? A Reality Check on Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection in the Wild

    Mar 5, 2026Shanle Yao, Armin Danesh Pazho, Narges Rashvand +1Video Anomaly DetectionZero-Shot Anomaly Detection

    Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, USA

  15. MoECLIP: Patch-Specialized Experts for Zero-shot Anomaly Detection

    Mar 3, 2026Jun Yeong Park, JunYoung Seo, Minji Kang +1Zero-Shot Anomaly DetectionVision Foundation Model Adaptation

    Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea

  16. AG-VAS: Anchor-Guided Zero-Shot Visual Anomaly Segmentation with Large Multimodal Models

    Mar 1, 2026Zhen Qu, Xian Tao, Xiaoyi Bao +4Zero-Shot Anomaly DetectionMultimodal Anomaly Detection

    Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences · School of Artificial Intelligence, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences · Casivision +1

  17. No Need For Real Anomaly: MLLM Empowered Zero-Shot Video Anomaly Detection

    Feb 22, 2026Zunkai Dai, Ke Li, Jiajia Liu +2Token CompressionVideo Anomaly Detection

    Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications · Northwestern Polytechnical University

  18. GS-CLIP: Zero-shot 3D Anomaly Detection by Geometry-Aware Prompt and Synergistic View Representation Learning

    Feb 22, 2026Zehao Deng, An Liu, Yan WangZero-Shot Anomaly DetectionPoint Cloud Anomaly Detection

    School of Computer Science and Technology, Soochow University · Institute for AI Industry Research (AIR), Tsinghua University

  19. TimeRadar: A Domain-Rotatable Foundation Model for Time Series Anomaly Detection

    Feb 22, 2026Hui He, Hezhe Qiao, Yutong Chen +2Time-Series Anomaly DetectionUnsupervised Anomaly Detection

    School of Computing and Information Systems, Singapore Management University, Singapore · Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing, China · State Information Center, Beijing, China

  20. From Few-Shot to Zero-Shot: Towards Generalist Graph Anomaly Detection

    Feb 21, 2026Yixin Liu, Shiyuan Li, Yu Zheng +4Anomaly DetectionZero-Shot Anomaly Detection

    School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Australia. · School of Computer, Electronics and Information, Guangxi University, Nanning, China. · Department of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. +1

  21. VETime: Vision Enhanced Zero-Shot Time Series Anomaly Detection

    Feb 18, 2026Yingyuan Yang, Tian Lan, Yifei Gao +6Time-Series Anomaly DetectionZero-Shot Anomaly Detection

    Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China · Lab, Huawei Technologies Ltd, Shenzhen, China · Datadog AI Research

  22. Training-Free Zero-Shot Anomaly Detection in 3D Brain MRI with 2D Foundation Models

    Feb 17, 2026Tai Le-Gia, Jaehyun AhnMedical Image Anomaly DetectionZero-Shot Anomaly Detection

    Department of Mathematics, Chungnam National University, South Korea

  23. Defect-aware Hybrid Prompt Optimization via Progressive Tuning for Zero-Shot Multi-type Anomaly Detection and Segmentation

    Dec 10, 2025Nadeem Nazer, Hongkuan Zhou, Lavdim Halilaj +2Industrial Anomaly DetectionMultimodal Anomaly Detection

    Corporate Research, Robert Bosch GmbH, Renningen, Germany · Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany · Institute for Artificial Intelligence, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany +2

  24. SPADE: A Large Language Model Framework for Soil Moisture Pattern Recognition and Anomaly Detection in Precision Agriculture

    Sep 10, 2025Yeonju Lee, Rui Qi Chen, Joseph Oboamah +7Zero-Shot Anomaly DetectionTime-Series Anomaly Detection

    H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA · Panhandle Research and Extension Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Scottsbluff, NE, USA · Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA +3

  25. AnomalyGFM: Graph Foundation Model for Zero/Few-shot Anomaly Detection

    Feb 13, 2025Hezhe Qiao, Chaoxi Niu, Ling Chen +1Graph-Based Anomaly DetectionAnomaly Detection

    School of Computing and Information Systems Singapore Management University Singapore · Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute University of Technology Sydney Sydney, Australia