Added missing input validation to loss_mmod_. Specifically, the loss layer now

checks if the user is giving truth boxes that can't be detected because the
non-max suppression settings would prevent them from being output at the same
time.  If this happens then we print a warning message and set one of the
offending boxes to "ignore".

dlib/dnn/loss.h

@@ -697,12 +697,12 @@ namespace dlib
             double loss = 0;
 
             float* g = grad.host_write_only();
-            // zero initialize grad.
+            for (size_t i = 0; i < grad.size(); ++i)
-            for (auto&& x : grad)
+                g[i] = 0;
-                x = 0;
 
             const float* out_data = output_tensor.host();
 
+            std::vector<size_t> truth_idxs;  truth_idxs.reserve(truth->size());
             std::vector<intermediate_detection> dets;
             for (long i = 0; i < output_tensor.num_samples(); ++i)
             {
@@ -726,14 +726,17 @@ namespace dlib
                             loss -= 1;
                             continue;
                         }
-                        loss -= out_data[(k*output_tensor.nr() + p.y())*output_tensor.nc() + p.x()];
+                        const size_t idx = (k*output_tensor.nr() + p.y())*output_tensor.nc() + p.x();
+                        loss -= out_data[idx];
                         // compute gradient
-                        g[(k*output_tensor.nr() + p.y())*output_tensor.nc() + p.x()] = -scale;
+                        g[idx] = -scale;
+                        truth_idxs.push_back(idx);
                     }
                     else
                     {
                         // This box was ignored so shouldn't have been counted in the loss.
                         loss -= 1;
+                        truth_idxs.push_back(0);
                     }
                 }
 
@@ -772,6 +775,33 @@ namespace dlib
                     }
                 }
 
+                // Check if any of the truth boxes are unobtainable because the NMS is
+                // killing them.  If so, automatically set those unobtainable boxes to
+                // ignore and print a warning message to the user.
+                for (size_t i = 0; i < hit_truth_table.size(); ++i)
+                {
+                    if (!hit_truth_table[i] && !(*truth)[i].ignore) 
+                    {
+                        // So we didn't hit this truth box.  Is that because there is
+                        // another, different truth box, that overlaps it according to NMS?
+                        const std::pair<double,unsigned int> hittruth = find_best_match(*truth, (*truth)[i], i);
+                        if (hittruth.second == i)
+                            continue;
+                        rectangle best_matching_truth_box = (*truth)[hittruth.second];
+                        if (options.overlaps_nms(best_matching_truth_box, (*truth)[i]))
+                        {
+                            const size_t idx = truth_idxs[i];
+                            // We are ignoring this box so we shouldn't have counted it in the
+                            // loss in the first place.  So we subtract out the loss values we
+                            // added for it in the code above.
+                            loss -= 1-out_data[idx];
+                            g[idx] = 0;
+                            std::cout << "Warning, ignoring object.  We encountered a truth rectangle located at " << (*truth)[i].rect;
+                            std::cout << " that is suppressed by non-max-suppression ";
+                            std::cout << "because it is overlapped by another truth rectangle located at " << best_matching_truth_box << "." << std::endl;
+                        }
+                    }
+                }
 
                 hit_truth_table.assign(hit_truth_table.size(), false);
                 final_dets.clear();
@@ -1012,12 +1042,21 @@ namespace dlib
             const std::vector<mmod_rect>& boxes,
             const rectangle& rect
         ) const
+        {
+            return find_best_match(boxes, rect, boxes.size());
+        }
+
+        std::pair<double,unsigned int> find_best_match(
+            const std::vector<mmod_rect>& boxes,
+            const rectangle& rect,
+            const size_t excluded_idx
+        ) const
         {
             double match = 0;
             unsigned int best_idx = 0;
             for (unsigned long i = 0; i < boxes.size(); ++i)
             {
-                if (boxes[i].ignore)
+                if (boxes[i].ignore || excluded_idx == i)
                     continue;
 
                 const double new_match = box_intersection_over_union(rect, boxes[i]);