Identification of Lines Based on Form Factor and Geometrical Descriptors

The problems of releasing and identifying features of key elements and their identification in images are shown. The basic algorithms and methods for forming descriptors for key elements in the image are considered. The main disadvantages of existing methods in aerospace images are the loss of stability and the presence of a large number of false key elements when changing recording to the conditions (for example, brightness and contrast of the received images). To eliminate these drawbacks, it is proposed to use selected lines as key elements, and their geometrical characteristics to form a descriptor. To analyze the proposed algorithm and the SIFT method, fragments of aerospace images changed in brightness and contrast in a graphic editor from -50 to +50 percent of the original were used, which made it possible to evaluate the operation of these algorithms in conditions close to the real survey. It is shown that the proposed algorithm is more stable than the SIFT method with increasing contrast and decreasing the brightness of the test aerospace image. Also, the proposed algorithm is characterized by a smaller number of detected false key elements compared to the SIFT method

Identification of Lines Based on Form Factor and Geometrical Descriptors

The problems of releasing and identifying features of key elements and their identification in images are shown. The basic algorithms and methods for forming descriptors for key elements in the image are considered. The main disadvantages of existing methods in aerospace images are the loss of stability and the presence of a large number of false key elements when changing recording to the conditions (for example, brightness and contrast of the received images). To eliminate these drawbacks, it is proposed to use selected lines as key elements, and their geometrical characteristics to form a descriptor. To analyze the proposed algorithm and the SIFT method, fragments of aerospace images changed in brightness and contrast in a graphic editor from -50 to +50 percent of the original were used, which made it possible to evaluate the operation of these algorithms in conditions close to the real survey. It is shown that the proposed algorithm is more stable than the SIFT method with increasing contrast and decreasing the brightness of the test aerospace image. Also, the proposed algorithm is characterized by a smaller number of detected false key elements compared to the SIFT method

NOVA INFORMACIJSKA TEHNOLOGIJA PROCJENE KORISTI IZDVAJANJA CESTA POMOĆU SATELITSKIH SNIMKI VISOKE REZOLUCIJE TEMELJENE NA PCNN I C-V MODELU

Road extraction from high resolution satellite images has been an important research topic for analysis of urban areas. In this paper road extraction based on PCNN and Chan-Vese active contour model are compared. It is difficult and computationally expensive to extract roads from the original image due to presences of other road-like features with straight edges. The image is pre-processed using median filter to reduce the noise. Then road extraction is performed using PCNN and Chan-Vese active contour model. Nonlinear segments are removed using morphological operations. Finally the accuracy for the road extracted images is evaluated based on quality measures.Izdvajanje cesta pomoću satelitskih slika visoke rezolucije je važna istraživačka tema za analizu urbanih područja. U ovom radu ekstrakcije ceste se uspoređuju na PCNN i Chan-Vese aktivnom modelu. Teško je i računalno skupo izdvojiti ceste iz originalne slike zbog prisutnosti drugih elemenata ravnih rubova sličnih cestama. Slika je prethodno obrađena korištenjem filtera za smanjenje smetnji. Zatim se ekstrakcija ceste izvodi pomoću PCNN i Chan-Vese aktivnog modela konture. Nelinearni segmenti su uklonjeni primjenom morfoloških operacija. Konačno, točnost za ceste izdvojene iz slika se ocjenjuje na temelju kvalitativnih mjera

Image Segmentation Approaches Applied for the Earth's Surface

An analytical review of papers about remote sensing, as well as semantic segmentation and classification methods to process these data, is carried out. Approaches such as template matching-based methods,machine learning and neural networks, as well as the application of knowledge about the analyzed objects are considered. The features of vegetation indices usage for data segmentation by satellite images are considered.Advantages and disadvantages are noted. Recommendations operations for a more accurate classification of thedetected areas on the sequence are give

Injecting spatial priors in Earth observation with machine vision

Remote Sensing (RS) imagery with submeter resolution is becoming ubiquitous. Be it from satellites, aerial campaigns or Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, this spatial resolution allows to recognize individual objects and their parts from above. This has driven, during the last few years, a big interest in the RS community on Computer Vision (CV) methods developed for the automated understanding of natural images. A central element to the success of \CV is the use of prior information about the image generation process and the objects these images contain: neighboring pixels are likely to belong to the same object; objects of the same nature tend to look similar with independence of their location in the image; certain objects tend to occur in particular geometric configurations; etc. When using RS imagery, additional prior knowledge exists on how the images were formed, since we know roughly the geographical location of the objects, the geospatial prior, and the direction they were observed from, the overhead-view prior. This thesis explores ways of encoding these priors in CV models to improve their performance on RS imagery, with a focus on land-cover and land-use mapping.</p

An Evolutionary Approach to Adaptive Image Analysis for Retrieving and Long-term Monitoring Historical Land Use from Spatiotemporally Heterogeneous Map Sources

Land use changes have become a major contributor to the anthropogenic global change. The ongoing dispersion and concentration of the human species, being at their orders unprecedented, have indisputably altered Earth’s surface and atmosphere. The effects are so salient and irreversible that a new geological epoch, following the interglacial Holocene, has been announced: the Anthropocene. While its onset is by some scholars dated back to the Neolithic revolution, it is commonly referred to the late 18th century. The rapid development since the industrial revolution and its implications gave rise to an increasing awareness of the extensive anthropogenic land change and led to an urgent need for sustainable strategies for land use and land management. By preserving of landscape and settlement patterns at discrete points in time, archival geospatial data sources such as remote sensing imagery and historical geotopographic maps, in particular, could give evidence of the dynamic land use change during this crucial period. In this context, this thesis set out to explore the potentials of retrospective geoinformation for monitoring, communicating, modeling and eventually understanding the complex and gradually evolving processes of land cover and land use change. Currently, large amounts of geospatial data sources such as archival maps are being worldwide made online accessible by libraries and national mapping agencies. Despite their abundance and relevance, the usage of historical land use and land cover information in research is still often hindered by the laborious visual interpretation, limiting the temporal and spatial coverage of studies. Thus, the core of the thesis is dedicated to the computational acquisition of geoinformation from archival map sources by means of digital image analysis. Based on a comprehensive review of literature as well as the data and proposed algorithms, two major challenges for long-term retrospective information acquisition and change detection were identified: first, the diversity of geographical entity representations over space and time, and second, the uncertainty inherent to both the data source itself and its utilization for land change detection. To address the former challenge, image segmentation is considered a global non-linear optimization problem. The segmentation methods and parameters are adjusted using a metaheuristic, evolutionary approach. For preserving adaptability in high level image analysis, a hybrid model- and data-driven strategy, combining a knowledge-based and a neural net classifier, is recommended. To address the second challenge, a probabilistic object- and field-based change detection approach for modeling the positional, thematic, and temporal uncertainty adherent to both data and processing, is developed. Experimental results indicate the suitability of the methodology in support of land change monitoring. In conclusion, potentials of application and directions for further research are given

Methods for Real-time Visualization and Interaction with Landforms

This thesis presents methods to enrich data modeling and analysis in the geoscience domain with a particular focus on geomorphological applications. First, a short overview of the relevant characteristics of the used remote sensing data and basics of its processing and visualization are provided. Then, two new methods for the visualization of vector-based maps on digital elevation models (DEMs) are presented. The first method uses a texture-based approach that generates a texture from the input maps at runtime taking into account the current viewpoint. In contrast to that, the second method utilizes the stencil buffer to create a mask in image space that is then used to render the map on top of the DEM. A particular challenge in this context is posed by the view-dependent level-of-detail representation of the terrain geometry. After suitable visualization methods for vector-based maps have been investigated, two landform mapping tools for the interactive generation of such maps are presented. The user can carry out the mapping directly on the textured digital elevation model and thus benefit from the 3D visualization of the relief. Additionally, semi-automatic image segmentation techniques are applied in order to reduce the amount of user interaction required and thus make the mapping process more efficient and convenient. The challenge in the adaption of the methods lies in the transfer of the algorithms to the quadtree representation of the data and in the application of out-of-core and hierarchical methods to ensure interactive performance. Although high-resolution remote sensing data are often available today, their effective resolution at steep slopes is rather low due to the oblique acquisition angle. For this reason, remote sensing data are suitable to only a limited extent for visualization as well as landform mapping purposes. To provide an easy way to supply additional imagery, an algorithm for registering uncalibrated photos to a textured digital elevation model is presented. A particular challenge in registering the images is posed by large variations in the photos concerning resolution, lighting conditions, seasonal changes, etc. The registered photos can be used to increase the visual quality of the textured DEM, in particular at steep slopes. To this end, a method is presented that combines several georegistered photos to textures for the DEM. The difficulty in this compositing process is to create a consistent appearance and avoid visible seams between the photos. In addition to that, the photos also provide valuable means to improve landform mapping. To this end, an extension of the landform mapping methods is presented that allows the utilization of the registered photos during mapping. This way, a detailed and exact mapping becomes feasible even at steep slopes

Two and three dimensional segmentation of multimodal imagery

The role of segmentation in the realms of image understanding/analysis, computer vision, pattern recognition, remote sensing and medical imaging in recent years has been significantly augmented due to accelerated scientific advances made in the acquisition of image data. This low-level analysis protocol is critical to numerous applications, with the primary goal of expediting and improving the effectiveness of subsequent high-level operations by providing a condensed and pertinent representation of image information. In this research, we propose a novel unsupervised segmentation framework for facilitating meaningful segregation of 2-D/3-D image data across multiple modalities (color, remote-sensing and biomedical imaging) into non-overlapping partitions using several spatial-spectral attributes. Initially, our framework exploits the information obtained from detecting edges inherent in the data. To this effect, by using a vector gradient detection technique, pixels without edges are grouped and individually labeled to partition some initial portion of the input image content. Pixels that contain higher gradient densities are included by the dynamic generation of segments as the algorithm progresses to generate an initial region map. Subsequently, texture modeling is performed and the obtained gradient, texture and intensity information along with the aforementioned initial partition map are used to perform a multivariate refinement procedure, to fuse groups with similar characteristics yielding the final output segmentation. Experimental results obtained in comparison to published/state-of the-art segmentation techniques for color as well as multi/hyperspectral imagery, demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method. Furthermore, for the purpose of achieving improved computational efficiency we propose an extension of the aforestated methodology in a multi-resolution framework, demonstrated on color images. Finally, this research also encompasses a 3-D extension of the aforementioned algorithm demonstrated on medical (Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Computed Tomography) volumes