An Approach for the Customized High-Dimensional Segmentation of Remote Sensing Hyperspectral Images

Abstract: This paper addresses three problems in the field of hyperspectral image segmentation: the fact that the way an image must be segmented is related to what the user requires and the application; the lack and cost of appropriately labeled reference images; and, finally, the information loss problem that arises in many algorithms when high dimensional images are projected onto lower dimensional spaces before starting the segmentation process. To address these issues, the Multi-Gradient based Cellular Automaton (MGCA) structure is proposed to segment multidimensional images without projecting them to lower dimensional spaces. The MGCA structure is coupled with an evolutionary algorithm (ECAS-II) in order to produce the transition rule sets required by MGCA segmenters. These sets are customized to specific segmentation needs as a function of a set of low dimensional training images in which the user expresses his segmentation requirements. Constructing high dimensional image segmenters from low dimensional training sets alleviates the problem of lack of labeled training images. These can be generated online based on a parametrization of the desired segmentation extracted from a set of examples. The strategy has been tested in experiments carried out using synthetic and real hyperspectral images, and it has been compared to state-of-the-art segmentation approaches over benchmark images in the area of remote sensing hyperspectral imaging.Ministerio de Economía y competitividad; TIN2015-63646-C5-1-RMinisterio de Economía y competitividad; RTI2018-101114-B-I00Xunta de Galicia: ED431C 2017/1

A robust dynamic classifier selection approach for hyperspectral images with imprecise label information

Supervised hyperspectral image (HSI) classification relies on accurate label information. However, it is not always possible to collect perfectly accurate labels for training samples. This motivates the development of classifiers that are sufficiently robust to some reasonable amounts of errors in data labels. Despite the growing importance of this aspect, it has not been sufficiently studied in the literature yet. In this paper, we analyze the effect of erroneous sample labels on probability distributions of the principal components of HSIs, and provide in this way a statistical analysis of the resulting uncertainty in classifiers. Building on the theory of imprecise probabilities, we develop a novel robust dynamic classifier selection (R-DCS) model for data classification with erroneous labels. Particularly, spectral and spatial features are extracted from HSIs to construct two individual classifiers for the dynamic selection, respectively. The proposed R-DCS model is based on the robustness of the classifiers’ predictions: the extent to which a classifier can be altered without changing its prediction. We provide three possible selection strategies for the proposed model with different computational complexities and apply them on three benchmark data sets. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model outperforms the individual classifiers it selects from and is more robust to errors in labels compared to widely adopted approaches

Efficient multitemporal change detection techniques for hyperspectral images on GPU

Hyperspectral images contain hundreds of reflectance values for each pixel. Detecting regions of change in multiple hyperspectral images of the same scene taken at different times is of widespread interest for a large number of applications. For remote sensing, in particular, a very common application is land-cover analysis. The high dimensionality of the hyperspectral images makes the development of computationally efficient processing schemes critical. This thesis focuses on the development of change detection approaches at object level, based on supervised direct multidate classification, for hyperspectral datasets. The proposed approaches improve the accuracy of current state of the art algorithms and their projection onto Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) allows their execution in real-time scenarios

Hyperspectral Image Classification for Remote Sensing

This thesis is focused on deep learning-based, pixel-wise classification of hyperspectral images (HSI) in remote sensing. Although presence of many spectral bands in an HSI provides a valuable source of features, dimensionality reduction is often performed in the pre-processing step to reduce the correlation between bands. Most of the deep learning-based classification algorithms use unsupervised dimensionality reduction methods such as principal component analysis (PCA). However, in this thesis in order to take advantage of class discriminatory information in the dimensionality reduction step as well as power of deep neural network we propose a new method that combines a supervised dimensionality reduction technique, principal component discriminant analysis (PCDA) and deep learning. Furthermore, in this thesis in order to overcome the common problem of inadequacy of labeled samples in remote sensing HSI classification, we propose a spectral perturbation method to augment the number of training samples and improve the classification results. Since combining spatial and spectral information can dramatically improve HSI classification results, in this thesis we propose a new spectral-spatial feature vector. In our feature vector, based on their proximity to the dominant edges, neighbors of a target pixel have different contributions in forming the spatial information. To obtain such a proximity measure, we propose a method to compute the distance transform image of the input HSI. We then improved the spatial feature vector by adding extended multi attribute profile (EMAP) features to it. Classification accuracies demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method in generating a powerful, expressive spectral-spatial feature vector

On the effect of synthetic morphological feature vectors on hyperspectral image classification performance (Yapay biçimbilimsel özniteliklerin hiperspektral görüntü sınıflandırma başarımının üzerindeki etkisi)

This paper studies the effect of synthetic feature vectors on the classification performance of hyperspectral remote sensing images. As feature vectors, it has been chosen to employ morphological attribute profiles, that have proven themselves in this field. At this early stage of our work, the relatively simple Bootstrapping algorithm has been used for synthetic feature vector generation. Based on experiments conducted on multiple hyperspectral datasets, it has been observed that synthetic feature vectors contribute considerably to classification performance in the case of limited training dataset sizes

Graph-based Data Modeling and Analysis for Data Fusion in Remote Sensing

Hyperspectral imaging provides the capability of increased sensitivity and discrimination over traditional imaging methods by combining standard digital imaging with spectroscopic methods. For each individual pixel in a hyperspectral image (HSI), a continuous spectrum is sampled as the spectral reflectance/radiance signature to facilitate identification of ground cover and surface material. The abundant spectrum knowledge allows all available information from the data to be mined. The superior qualities within hyperspectral imaging allow wide applications such as mineral exploration, agriculture monitoring, and ecological surveillance, etc. The processing of massive high-dimensional HSI datasets is a challenge since many data processing techniques have a computational complexity that grows exponentially with the dimension. Besides, a HSI dataset may contain a limited number of degrees of freedom due to the high correlations between data points and among the spectra. On the other hand, merely taking advantage of the sampled spectrum of individual HSI data point may produce inaccurate results due to the mixed nature of raw HSI data, such as mixed pixels, optical interferences and etc. Fusion strategies are widely adopted in data processing to achieve better performance, especially in the field of classification and clustering. There are mainly three types of fusion strategies, namely low-level data fusion, intermediate-level feature fusion, and high-level decision fusion. Low-level data fusion combines multi-source data that is expected to be complementary or cooperative. Intermediate-level feature fusion aims at selection and combination of features to remove redundant information. Decision level fusion exploits a set of classifiers to provide more accurate results. The fusion strategies have wide applications including HSI data processing. With the fast development of multiple remote sensing modalities, e.g. Very High Resolution (VHR) optical sensors, LiDAR, etc., fusion of multi-source data can in principal produce more detailed information than each single source. On the other hand, besides the abundant spectral information contained in HSI data, features such as texture and shape may be employed to represent data points from a spatial perspective. Furthermore, feature fusion also includes the strategy of removing redundant and noisy features in the dataset. One of the major problems in machine learning and pattern recognition is to develop appropriate representations for complex nonlinear data. In HSI processing, a particular data point is usually described as a vector with coordinates corresponding to the intensities measured in the spectral bands. This vector representation permits the application of linear and nonlinear transformations with linear algebra to find an alternative representation of the data. More generally, HSI is multi-dimensional in nature and the vector representation may lose the contextual correlations. Tensor representation provides a more sophisticated modeling technique and a higher-order generalization to linear subspace analysis. In graph theory, data points can be generalized as nodes with connectivities measured from the proximity of a local neighborhood. The graph-based framework efficiently characterizes the relationships among the data and allows for convenient mathematical manipulation in many applications, such as data clustering, feature extraction, feature selection and data alignment. In this thesis, graph-based approaches applied in the field of multi-source feature and data fusion in remote sensing area are explored. We will mainly investigate the fusion of spatial, spectral and LiDAR information with linear and multilinear algebra under graph-based framework for data clustering and classification problems

Spectral and spatial methods for the classification of urban remote sensing data

Lors de ces travaux, nous nous sommes intéressés au problème de la classification supervisée d'images satellitaires de zones urbaines. Les données traitées sont des images optiques à très hautes résolutions spatiales: données panchromatiques à très haute résolution spatiale (IKONOS, QUICKBIRD, simulations PLEIADES) et des images hyperspectrales (DAIS, ROSIS). Deux stratégies ont été proposées. La première stratégie consiste en une phase d'extraction de caractéristiques spatiales et spectrales suivie d'une phase de classification. Ces caractéristiques sont extraites par filtrages morphologiques : ouvertures et fermetures géodésiques et filtrages surfaciques auto-complémentaires. La classification est réalisée avec les machines à vecteurs supports (SVM) non linéaires. Nous proposons la définition d'un noyau spatio-spectral utilisant de manière conjointe l'information spatiale et l'information spectrale extraites lors de la première phase. La seconde stratégie consiste en une phase de fusion de données pre- ou post-classification. Lors de la fusion postclassification, divers classifieurs sont appliqués, éventuellement sur plusieurs données issues d'une même scène (image panchromat ique, image multi-spectrale). Pour chaque pixel, l'appartenance à chaque classe est estimée à l'aide des classifieurs. Un schéma de fusion adaptatif permettant d'utiliser l'information sur la fiabilité locale de chaque classifieur, mais aussi l'information globale disponible a priori sur les performances de chaque algorithme pour les différentes classes, est proposé. Les différents résultats sont fusionnés à l'aide d'opérateurs flous. Les méthodes ont été validées sur des images réelles. Des améliorations significatives sont obtenues par rapport aux méthodes publiées dans la litterature