Inertia-Constrained Pixel-by-Pixel Nonnegative Matrix Factorisation: a Hyperspectral Unmixing Method Dealing with Intra-class Variability

Blind source separation is a common processing tool to analyse the constitution of pixels of hyperspectral images. Such methods usually suppose that pure pixel spectra (endmembers) are the same in all the image for each class of materials. In the framework of remote sensing, such an assumption is no more valid in the presence of intra-class variabilities due to illumination conditions, weathering, slight variations of the pure materials, etc... In this paper, we first describe the results of investigations highlighting intra-class variability measured in real images. Considering these results, a new formulation of the linear mixing model is presented leading to two new methods. Unconstrained Pixel-by-pixel NMF (UP-NMF) is a new blind source separation method based on the assumption of a linear mixing model, which can deal with intra-class variability. To overcome UP-NMF limitations an extended method is proposed, named Inertia-constrained Pixel-by-pixel NMF (IP-NMF). For each sensed spectrum, these extended versions of NMF extract a corresponding set of source spectra. A constraint is set to limit the spreading of each source's estimates in IP-NMF. The methods are tested on a semi-synthetic data set built with spectra extracted from a real hyperspectral image and then numerically mixed. We thus demonstrate the interest of our methods for realistic source variabilities. Finally, IP-NMF is tested on a real data set and it is shown to yield better performance than state of the art methods

Joint Bayesian endmember extraction and linear unmixing for hyperspectral imagery

This paper studies a fully Bayesian algorithm for endmember extraction and abundance estimation for hyperspectral imagery. Each pixel of the hyperspectral image is decomposed as a linear combination of pure endmember spectra following the linear mixing model. The estimation of the unknown endmember spectra is conducted in a unified manner by generating the posterior distribution of abundances and endmember parameters under a hierarchical Bayesian model. This model assumes conjugate prior distributions for these parameters, accounts for non-negativity and full-additivity constraints, and exploits the fact that the endmember proportions lie on a lower dimensional simplex. A Gibbs sampler is proposed to overcome the complexity of evaluating the resulting posterior distribution. This sampler generates samples distributed according to the posterior distribution and estimates the unknown parameters using these generated samples. The accuracy of the joint Bayesian estimator is illustrated by simulations conducted on synthetic and real AVIRIS images

Bayesian estimation of linear mixtures using the normal compositional model. Application to hyperspectral imagery

This paper studies a new Bayesian unmixing algorithm for hyperspectral images. Each pixel of the image is modeled as a linear combination of so-called endmembers. These endmembers are supposed to be random in order to model uncertainties regarding their knowledge. More precisely, we model endmembers as Gaussian vectors whose means have been determined using an endmember extraction algorithm such as the famous N-finder (N-FINDR) or Vertex Component Analysis (VCA) algorithms. This paper proposes to estimate the mixture coefficients (referred to as abundances) using a Bayesian algorithm. Suitable priors are assigned to the abundances in order to satisfy positivity and additivity constraints whereas conjugate priors are chosen for the remaining parameters. A hybrid Gibbs sampler is then constructed to generate abundance and variance samples distributed according to the joint posterior of the abundances and noise variances. The performance of the proposed methodology is evaluated by comparison with other unmixing algorithms on synthetic and real images

Estimating the number of endmembers in hyperspectral images using the normal compositional model and a hierarchical Bayesian algorithm.

This paper studies a semi-supervised Bayesian unmixing algorithm for hyperspectral images. This algorithm is based on the normal compositional model recently introduced by Eismann and Stein. The normal compositional model assumes that each pixel of the image is modeled as a linear combination of an unknown number of pure materials, called endmembers. However, contrary to the classical linear mixing model, these endmembers are supposed to be random in order to model uncertainties regarding their knowledge. This paper proposes to estimate the mixture coefficients of the Normal Compositional Model (referred to as abundances) as well as their number using a reversible jump Bayesian algorithm. The performance of the proposed methodology is evaluated thanks to simulations conducted on synthetic and real AVIRIS images

Semi-supervised linear spectral unmixing using a hierarchical Bayesian model for hyperspectral imagery

This paper proposes a hierarchical Bayesian model that can be used for semi-supervised hyperspectral image unmixing. The model assumes that the pixel reflectances result from linear combinations of pure component spectra contaminated by an additive Gaussian noise. The abundance parameters appearing in this model satisfy positivity and additivity constraints. These constraints are naturally expressed in a Bayesian context by using appropriate abundance prior distributions. The posterior distributions of the unknown model parameters are then derived. A Gibbs sampler allows one to draw samples distributed according to the posteriors of interest and to estimate the unknown abundances. An extension of the algorithm is finally studied for mixtures with unknown numbers of spectral components belonging to a know library. The performance of the different unmixing strategies is evaluated via simulations conducted on synthetic and real data