Files
remove-ai-watermarks/tests
Victor Kuznetsov d90d5d886a feat: controlnet pipeline for text/face-structure preservation
Add `--pipeline controlnet` (SDXL base + xinsir canny ControlNet via
StableDiffusionXLControlNetImg2ImgPipeline): the canny edge map conditions the
img2img regeneration so text and face STRUCTURE stay sharp, while the watermark
is still removed by the regeneration (`strength`) -- no original pixels are
copied or frozen, so SynthID does not survive. Oracle-verified clean on OpenAI
with better text/structure fidelity than plain img2img at equal strength.
`--controlnet-scale` tunes structure preservation; fp32 on mps/cpu (fp16-fixed
VAE on cuda/xpu). Shares the img2img runner (live progress + MPS->CPU fallback)
and the fp16-VAE-fix / device-move helpers with the default pipeline.

Remove the superseded subsystems -- ctrlregen (SD1.5 clean-noise),
text-protection (differential / region-hires) and face-protection: they either
destroyed real content or shielded the watermark by re-using original pixels.
controlnet replaces them by regenerating everything under edge conditioning.

Canny preserves face structure but not identity; face IDENTITY is a separate
face-restoration post-pass (CodeFormer/GFPGAN), researched + prototyped but not
yet shipped. An IP-Adapter FaceID attempt was built and removed (footgun: needs
high strength, corrupts faces at removal strength).

Docs: docs/controlnet-removal-pipeline-research.md, scripts/controlnet_sweep.py.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-06-03 16:59:28 -07:00
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