Parsimonious Mahalanobis Kernel for the Classification of High Dimensional Data

The classification of high dimensional data with kernel methods is considered in this article. Exploit- ing the emptiness property of high dimensional spaces, a kernel based on the Mahalanobis distance is proposed. The computation of the Mahalanobis distance requires the inversion of a covariance matrix. In high dimensional spaces, the estimated covariance matrix is ill-conditioned and its inversion is unstable or impossible. Using a parsimonious statistical model, namely the High Dimensional Discriminant Analysis model, the specific signal and noise subspaces are estimated for each considered class making the inverse of the class specific covariance matrix explicit and stable, leading to the definition of a parsimonious Mahalanobis kernel. A SVM based framework is used for selecting the hyperparameters of the parsimonious Mahalanobis kernel by optimizing the so-called radius-margin bound. Experimental results on three high dimensional data sets show that the proposed kernel is suitable for classifying high dimensional data, providing better classification accuracies than the conventional Gaussian kernel

The sensitivity of mapping methods to reference data quality:training supervised image classifications with imperfect reference data

The accuracy of a map is dependent on the reference dataset used in its construction. Classification analyses used in thematic mapping can, for example, be sensitive to a range of sampling and data quality concerns. With particular focus on the latter, the effects of reference data quality on land cover classifications from airborne thematic mapper data are explored. Variations in sampling intensity and effort are highlighted in a dataset that is widely used in mapping and modelling studies; these may need accounting for in analyses. The quality of the labelling in the reference dataset was also a key variable influencing mapping accuracy. Accuracy varied with the amount and nature of mislabelled training cases with the nature of the effects varying between classifiers. The largest impacts on accuracy occurred when mislabelling involved confusion between similar classes. Accuracy was also typically negatively related to the magnitude of mislabelled cases and the support vector machine (SVM), which has been claimed to be relatively insensitive to training data error, was the most sensitive of the set of classifiers investigated, with overall classification accuracy declining by 8% (significant at 95% level of confidence) with the use of a training set containing 20% mislabelled cases

A diver-operated hyperspectral imaging and topographic surveying system for automated mapping of benthic habitats

We developed a novel integrated technology for diver-operated surveying of shallow marine ecosystems. The HyperDiver system captures rich multifaceted data in each transect: hyperspectral and color imagery, topographic profiles, incident irradiance and water chemistry at a rate of 15-30 m(2) per minute. From surveys in a coral reef following standard diver protocols, we show how the rich optical detail can be leveraged to generate photopigment abundance and benthic composition maps. We applied machine learning techniques, with a minor annotation effort (<2% of pixels), to automatically generate cm-scale benthic habitat maps of high taxonomic resolution and accuracy (93-97%). The ability to efficiently map benthic composition, photopigment densities and rugosity at reef scales is a compelling contribution to modernize reef monitoring. Seafloor-level hyperspectral images can be used for automated mapping, avoiding operator bias in the analysis and deliver the degree of detail necessary for standardized environmental monitoring. The technique can deliver fast, objective and economic reef survey results, making it a valuable tool for coastal managers and reef ecologists. Underwater hyperspectral surveying shares the vantage point of the high spatial and taxonomic resolution restricted to field surveys, with analytical techniques of remote sensing and provides targeted validation for aerial monitoring

Reconstruction Error and Principal Component Based Anomaly Detection in Hyperspectral imagery

The rapid expansion of remote sensing and information collection capabilities demands methods to highlight interesting or anomalous patterns within an overabundance of data. This research addresses this issue for hyperspectral imagery (HSI). Two new reconstruction based HSI anomaly detectors are outlined: one using principal component analysis (PCA), and the other a form of non-linear PCA called logistic principal component analysis. Two very effective, yet relatively simple, modifications to the autonomous global anomaly detector are also presented, improving algorithm performance and enabling receiver operating characteristic analysis. A novel technique for HSI anomaly detection dubbed multiple PCA is introduced and found to perform as well or better than existing detectors on HYDICE data while using only linear deterministic methods. Finally, a response surface based optimization is performed on algorithm parameters such as to affect consistent desired algorithm performance

Hyperspectral detection of citrus damage with Mahalanobis kernel classifier

Presented is a full computer vision system for the identification of post-harvest damage in citrus packing houses. The method is based on the combined use of hyperspectral images and the Mahalanobis kernel classifier. More accurate and reliable results compared to other methods are obtained in several scenarios and acquired images

Adaptive Similarity Measures for Material Identification in Hyperspectral Imagery

Remotely-sensed hyperspectral imagery has become one the most advanced tools for analyzing the processes that shape the Earth and other planets. Effective, rapid analysis of high-volume, high-dimensional hyperspectral image data sets demands efficient, automated techniques to identify signatures of known materials in such imagery. In this thesis, we develop a framework for automatic material identification in hyperspectral imagery using adaptive similarity measures. We frame the material identification problem as a multiclass similarity-based classification problem, where our goal is to predict material labels for unlabeled target spectra based upon their similarities to source spectra with known material labels. As differences in capture conditions affect the spectral representations of materials, we divide the material identification problem into intra-domain (i.e., source and target spectra captured under identical conditions) and inter-domain (i.e., source and target spectra captured under different conditions) settings. The first component of this thesis develops adaptive similarity measures for intra-domain settings that measure the relevance of spectral features to the given classification task using small amounts of labeled data. We propose a technique based on multiclass Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) that combines several distinct similarity measures into a single hybrid measure capturing the strengths of each of the individual measures. We also provide a comparative survey of techniques for low-rank Mahalanobis metric learning, and demonstrate that regularized LDA yields competitive results to the state-of-the-art, at substantially lower computational cost. The second component of this thesis shifts the focus to inter-domain settings, and proposes a multiclass domain adaptation framework that reconciles systematic differences between spectra captured under similar, but not identical, conditions. Our framework computes a similarity-based mapping that captures structured, relative relationships between classes shared between source and target domains, allowing us apply a classifier trained using labeled source spectra to classify target spectra. We demonstrate improved domain adaptation accuracy in comparison to recently-proposed multitask learning and manifold alignment techniques in several case studies involving state-of-the-art synthetic and real-world hyperspectral imagery