TAPS : Frustratingly Simple Test Time Active Learning for VLMs

Abstract: Test-Time Optimization enables models to adapt to new data during inference by updating parameters on-the-fly. Recent advances in Vision-LLMs (VLMs) have explored learning prompts at test time to improve performance in downstream tasks. In this work, we extend this idea by addressing a more general and practical challenge: Can we effectively utilize an oracle in a continuous data stream where only one sample is available at a time, requiring an immediate query decision while respecting latency and memory constraints? To tackle this, we propose a novel Test-Time Active Learning (TTAL) framework that adaptively queries uncertain samples and updates prompts dynamically. Unlike prior methods that assume batched data or multiple gradient updates, our approach operates in a real-time streaming scenario with a single test sample per step. We introduce a dynamically adjusted entropy threshold for active querying, a class-balanced replacement strategy for memory efficiency, and a class-aware distribution alignment technique to enhance adaptation. The design choices are justified using careful theoretical analysis. Extensive experiments across 10 cross-dataset transfer benchmarks and 4 domain generalization datasets demonstrate consistent improvements over state-of-the-art methods while maintaining reasonable latency and memory overhead. Our framework provides a practical and effective solution for real-world deployment in safety-critical applications such as autonomous systems and medical diagnostics.