Change detection in multisensor SAR images using bivariate gamma distributions

This paper studies a family of distributions constructed from multivariate gamma distributions to model the statistical properties of multisensor synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. These distributions referred to as multisensor multivariate gamma distributions (MuMGDs) are potentially interesting for detecting changes in SAR images acquired by different sensors having different numbers of looks. The first part of the paper compares different estimators for the parameters of MuMGDs. These estimators are based on the maximum likelihood principle, the method of inference function for margins and the method of moments. The second part of the paper studies change detection algorithms based on the estimated correlation coefficient of MuMGDs. Simulation results conducted on synthetic and real data illustrate the performance of these change detectors

Time-scale analysis of abrupt changes corrupted by multiplicative noise

Multiplicative Abrupt Changes (ACs) have been considered in many applications. These applications include image processing (speckle) and random communication models (fading). Previous authors have shown that the Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) has good detection properties for ACs in additive noise. This work applies the CWT to AC detection in multiplicative noise. CWT translation invariance allows to define an AC signature. The problem then becomes signature detection in the time-scale domain. A second-order contrast criterion is defined as a measure of detection performance. This criterion depends upon the first- and second-order moments of the multiplicative process's CWT. An optimal wavelet (maximizing the contrast) is derived for an ideal step in white multiplicative noise. This wavelet is asymptotically optimal for smooth changes and can be approximated for small AC amplitudes by the Haar wavelet. Linear and quadratic suboptimal signature-based detectors are also studied. Closed-form threshold expressions are given as functions of the false alarm probability for three of the detectors. Detection performance is characterized using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves computed from Monte-Carlo simulations

Detection and Estimation of Abrupt Changes contaminated by Multiplicative Gaussian Noise

The problem of abrupt change detection has received much attention in the literature. The Neyman Pearson detector can be derived and yields the well-known CUSUM algorithm, when the abrupt change is contaminated by an additive noise. However, a multiplicative noise has been observed in many signal processing applications. These applications include radar, sonar, communication and image processing. This paper addresses the problem of abrupt change detection in presence of multiplicative noise. The optimal Neyman Pearson detector is studied when the abrupt change and noise parameters are known. The parameters are unknown in most practical applications and have to be estimated. The maximum likelihood estimator is then derived for these parameters. The maximum likelihood estimator performance is determined, by comparing the estimate mean square errors with the Cramer Rao Bounds. The Neyman Pearson detector combined with the maximum likelihood estimator yields the generalized likelihood ratio detector

Bayesian off-line detection of multiple change-points corrupted by multiplicative noise : application to SAR image edge detection

This paper addresses the problem of Bayesian off-line change-point detection in synthetic aperture radar images. The minimum mean square error and maximum a posteriori estimators of the changepoint positions are studied. Both estimators cannot be implemented because of optimization or integration problems. A practical implementation using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods is proposed. This implementation requires a priori knowledge of the so-called hyperparameters. A hyperparameter estimation procedure is proposed that alleviates the requirement of knowing the values of the hyperparameters. Simulation results on synthetic signals and synthetic aperture radar images are presented

A Fusion Framework for Camouflaged Moving Foreground Detection in the Wavelet Domain

Detecting camouflaged moving foreground objects has been known to be difficult due to the similarity between the foreground objects and the background. Conventional methods cannot distinguish the foreground from background due to the small differences between them and thus suffer from under-detection of the camouflaged foreground objects. In this paper, we present a fusion framework to address this problem in the wavelet domain. We first show that the small differences in the image domain can be highlighted in certain wavelet bands. Then the likelihood of each wavelet coefficient being foreground is estimated by formulating foreground and background models for each wavelet band. The proposed framework effectively aggregates the likelihoods from different wavelet bands based on the characteristics of the wavelet transform. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method significantly outperformed existing methods in detecting camouflaged foreground objects. Specifically, the average F-measure for the proposed algorithm was 0.87, compared to 0.71 to 0.8 for the other state-of-the-art methods.Comment: 13 pages, accepted by IEEE TI