Academic literature on the topic 'Pixels – Classification'

Recently, remotely sensed multispectral data have been proved to be very useful for many applications in the field of Earth surveys. For certain applications, however, limits in the spatial resolution of satellite sensors and variation in ground surface restrict the usefulness of the available data, since the observed spectral signature of the pixels is the result of a number of surface materials found in the area of the pixel. Two mixed pixel classification techniques which have shown high correlation with vegetation coverage of single pixels are described in this thesis: the vegetation indices and the linear mixing model. The two approaches are adjusted in order to deal with sets of pixels and not individual pixels. The sets of pixels are treated as statistical distributions and moments can be estimated. The vegetation indices and the linear mixing model can then be expressed in terms of these statistics. The illumination direction is an important factor that should be taken into account in mixed pixel classification, since it modifies the statistics of the distributions of pixels, and has received no attention until now. The effect of illumination on the relation between the vegetation indices and the proportion of sets of mixed pixels is examined. It is demonstrated that some vegetation indices, which are defined from the ratio of statistics in two spectral bands, can be considered relatively invariant to illumination changes. Finally, a new illumination invariant mixing model is proposed which is expressed in terms of some photometric invariant statistics. It is shown to perform very well and it can be used to un-mix accurately sets of pixels under many illumination angles. The newly introduced mixing model can be considered a suitable choice in the mixed pixel classification field. Key words: Mixed pixels, sets of pixels, vegetation index, illumination invariants.

Master of Science<br>Department of Statistics<br>Haiyan Wang<br>We introduce a new classification method that is applicable to classify image pixels. This work was motivated by the test-based classification (TBC) introduced by Liao and Akritas(2007). We found that direct application of TBC on image pixel classification can lead to high mis-classification rate. We propose a method that combines the minimum distance and evidence from hypothesis testing to classify image pixels. The method is implemented in R programming language. Our method eliminates the drawback of Liao and Akritas (2007).Extensive experiments show that our modified method works better in the classification of image pixels in comparison with some standard methods of classification; namely, Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA), Quadratic Discriminant Analysis (QDA), Classification Tree(CT), Polyclass classification, and TBC. We demonstrate that our method works well in the case of both grayscale and color images.

The purpose of this report is to investigate and answer the research question: How can current skin segmentation thresholding methods be improved in terms of precision, accuracy, and efficiency by using feature recognition, pre- and post-processing? In this work, a novel algorithm is presented for classification of skin pixels in images. Different pre-processing methods were evaluated to improve the overall performance of the algorithm. Mainly, the methods of image smoothing, and histogram equalization were tested. Using a Gaussian kernel and contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) was found to give the best result. A face recognition technique based on learned face features were used to identify a skin color range for each image. Threshold segmentation was then used, based on the obtained skin color range, to extract a skin map for each image. The skin maps were improved by testing a morphology method called closing and by using contour detection for an elimination of large false skin structures within skin regions. The skin maps were then evaluated by calculating the precision, recall, accuracy, and f-measure using a ground truth dataset called Pratheepan. This novel approach was compared to previous work in the field and obtained a considerable higher result. Thus, the algorithm is an improvement compared to previous work within the field.

Until recently, methodologies to extract sub-pixel information from remotely sensed data have focused on linear un-mixing models and so called fuzzy classifiers. Recent research has suggested that neural networks have the potential for providing sub- pixel information. Neural networks offer an attractive alternative as they are non- parametric, they are not restricted to any number of classes, they do not assume that the spectral signatures of pixel components mix linearly and they do not necessarily have to be trained with pure pixels. The thesis tests the validity of neural networks for extracting sub-pixel information using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis tools. Previously published experiments use data sets that are often limited in terms of numbers of pixels and numbers of classes. The data sets used in the thesis reflect the complexity of the landscape. Preparation for the experiments is canied out by analysing the data sets and establishing that the network is not sensitive to particular choices of parameters. Classification results using a conventional type of target with which to train the network show that the response of the network to mixed pixels is different from the response of the network to pure pixels. Different target types are then tested. Although targets which provide detailed compositional information produce higher accuracies of classification for subsidiary classes, there is a trade off between the added information and added complexity which can decrease classification accuracy. Overall, the results show that the network seems to be able to identify the classes that are present within pixels but not their proportions. Experiments with a very accurate data set show that the network behaves like a pattern matching algorithm and requires examples of mixed pixels in the training data set in order to estimate pixel compositions for unseen pixels. The network does not function like an unmixing model and cannot interpolate between pure classes.

In the last decades camera systems have continuously evolved and have found wide range of applications. One of the main applications of a modern camera system is surveillance in outdoor areas. The camera system, based on local computations, can detect and classify objects autonomously. However, the distance of the objects from the camera plays a vital role on the classification results. This could be specially challenging when lighting conditions are varying. Therefore, in this thesis, we are examining the effect of changing dis-tances on object in terms of number of pixels. In addition, the effect of distance on classification is studied by preparing four different sets. For consideration of high signal to noise ratio, we are integrating thermal and visual image sensors for the same test in order to achieve better spectral resolution. In this study, four different data sets, thermal, visu-al, binary from visual and binary from thermal have been prepared to train the classifier. The categorized objects include bicycle, human and vehicle. Comparative studies have been performed in order to identify the data sets accuracy. It has been demonstrated that for fixed distances bi-level data sets, obtained from visual images, have better accuracy. By using our setup, the object (human) with a length of 179 and width of 30 has been classified correctly with minor error up to 150 meters for thermal, visual as well as binary from visual. Moreover, for bi-level images from thermal, the human object has been correctly classified as far away as 250 meters.

La thèse propose des nouvelles techniques pour la classification et le démelange spectraldes images obtenus par télédétection iperspectrale. Les problèmes liées au données (notammenttrès grande dimensionalité, présence de mélanges des pixels) ont été considerés et destechniques innovantes pour résoudre ces problèmes. Nouvelles méthodes de classi_cationavancées basées sur l'utilisation des méthodes traditionnel de réduction des dimension etl'integration de l'information spatiale ont été développés. De plus, les méthodes de démelangespectral ont été utilisés conjointement pour ameliorer la classification obtenu avec lesméthodes traditionnel, donnant la possibilité d'obtenir aussi une amélioration de la résolutionspatial des maps de classification grace à l'utilisation de l'information à niveau sous-pixel.Les travaux ont suivi une progression logique, avec les étapes suivantes:1. Constat de base: pour améliorer la classification d'imagerie hyperspectrale, il fautconsidérer les problèmes liées au données : très grande dimensionalité, presence demélanges des pixels.2. Peut-on développer méthodes de classi_cation avancées basées sur l'utilisation des méthodestraditionnel de réduction des dimension (ICA ou autre)?3. Comment utiliser les differents types d'information contextuel typique des imagés satellitaires?4. Peut-on utiliser l'information données par les méthodes de démelange spectral pourproposer nouvelles chaines de réduction des dimension?5. Est-ce qu'on peut utiliser conjointement les méthodes de démelange spectral pour ameliorerla classification obtenu avec les méthodes traditionnel?6. Peut-on obtenir une amélioration de la résolution spatial des maps de classi_cationgrace à l'utilisation de l'information à niveau sous-pixel?Les différents méthodes proposées ont été testées sur plusieurs jeux de données réelles, montrantresultats comparable ou meilleurs de la plus part des methodes presentés dans la litterature.

En segmentation d’images, les informations de couleur et de texture sont très utilisées. Le premier apport de cette thèse se situe au niveau de l’utilisation conjointe de ces deux sources d’informations. Nous proposons alors une méthode de combinaison couleur/texture, adaptative et non paramétrique, qui consiste à combiner un (ou plus) gradient couleur et un (ou plus) gradient texture pour ensuite générer un gradient structurel utilisé comme image de potentiel dans l’algorithme de croissance de régions par LPE. L’originalité de notre méthode réside dans l’étude de la dispersion d’un nuage de point 3D dans l’espace, en utilisant une étude comparative des valeurs propres obtenues par une analyse des composantes principales de la matrice de covariance de ce nuage de points. L’approche de combinaison couleur/texture proposée est d’abord testée sur deux bases d’images, à savoir la base générique d’images couleur de BERKELEY et la base d’images de texture VISTEX. Cette thèse s’inscrivant dans le cadre des projets ViLoc (RFC) et CAPLOC (PREDIT), le deuxième apport de celle-ci se situe au niveau de la caractérisation de l’environnement de réception des signaux GNSS pour améliorer le calcul de la position d’un mobile en milieu urbain. Dans ce cadre, nous proposons d’exclure certains satellites (NLOS dont les signaux sont reçus par réflexion voir totalement bloqués par les obstacles environnants) dans le calcul de la position d’un mobile. Deux approches de caractérisation, basées sur le traitement d’images, sont alors proposées. La première approche consiste à appliquer la méthode de combinaison couleur/texture proposée sur deux bases d’images réelles acquises en mobilité, à l’aide d’une caméra fisheye installée sur le toit du véhicule de laboratoire, suivie d’une classification binaire permettant d’obtenir les deux classes d’intérêt « ciel » (signaux LOS) et « non ciel » (signaux NLOS). Afin de satisfaire la contrainte temps réel exigée par le projet CAPLOC, nous avons proposé une deuxième approche basée sur une simplification de l’image couplée à une classification pixellaire adaptée. Le principe d’exclusion des satellites NLOS permet d’améliorer la précision de la position estimée, mais uniquement lorsque les satellites LOS (dont les signaux sont reçus de manière direct) sont géométriquement bien distribués dans l’espace. Dans le but de prendre en compte cette connaissance relative à la distribution des satellites, et par conséquent, améliorer la précision de localisation, nous avons proposé une nouvelle stratégie pour l’estimation de position, basée sur l’exclusion des satellites NLOS (identifiés par le traitement d’images), conditionnée par l’information DOP, contenue dans les trames GPS<br>Color and texture are two main information used in image segmentation. The first contribution of this thesis focuses on the joint use of color and texture information by developing a robust and non parametric method combining color and texture gradients. The proposed color/texture combination allows defining a structural gradient that is used as potential image in watershed algorithm. The originality of the proposed method consists in studying a 3D points cloud generated by color and texture descriptors, followed by an eigenvalue analysis. The color/texture combination method is firstly tested and compared with well known methods in the literature, using two databases (generic BERKELEY database of color images and the VISTEX database of texture images). The applied part of the thesis is within ViLoc project (funded by RFC regional council) and CAPLOC project (funded by PREDIT). In this framework, the second contribution of the thesis concerns the characterization of the environment of GNSS signals reception. In this part, we aim to improve estimated position of a mobile in urban environment by excluding NLOS satellites (for which the signal is masked or received after reflections on obstacles surrounding the antenna environment). For that, we propose two approaches to characterize the environment of GNSS signals reception using image processing. The first one consists in applying the proposed color/texture combination on images acquired in mobility with a fisheye camera located on the roof of a vehicle and oriented toward the sky. The segmentation step is followed by a binary classification to extract two classes « sky » (LOS signals) and « not sky » (NLOS signals). The second approach is proposed in order to satisfy the real-time constraint required by the application. This approach is based on image simplification and adaptive pixel classification. The NLOS satellites exclusion principle is interesting, in terms of improving precision of position, when the LOS satellites (for which the signals are received directly) are well geometrically distributed in space. To take into account the knowledge of satellite distribution and then increase the precision of position, we propose a new strategy of position estimation, based on the exclusion of NLOS satellites (identified by the image processing step), conditioned by DOP information, which is provided by GPS data

Dans le cadre de l'analyse d'images de football, nous proposons une methodologie originale de segmentation d'images couleur en regions qui exploite les proprietes colorimetriques des pixels pour extraire de l'image les joueurs a suivre. Les pixels de chaque image sont affectes a differentes classes selon qu'ils representent le terrain, un joueur de l'une des deux equipes, un des deux gardiens de but ou un arbitre en utilisant des methodes classiques de classification de donnees multidimensionnelles fondees sur un apprentissage supervise. La couleur de chaque pixel est usuellement representee sur la base des trois composantes trichromatiques rouge, verte et bleue, mais peut etre codee dans d'autres systemes de representation que nous avons regroupes par familles en fonction de leurs differentes proprietes. L'originalite de notre approche consiste a construire un espace couleur hybride en selectionnant les composantes couleur les mieux adaptees aux classes de pixels a retrouver et pouvant etre issues de differents systemes. Pour cela, nous utilisons une methode d'analyse discriminante associee a des criteres informationnels de discrimination. Cette approche est generalisee en considerant qu'un pixel est represente par des attributs colorimetriques evalues a son voisinage. Il est ainsi possible de proposer une liste d'attributs calcules pour chacune des composantes couleur des systemes de representation. Le voisinage dans lequel sont calcules ces attributs colorimetriques permet de definir une texture couleur et de restituer ainsi les relations de connexite entre les pixels voisins. Les attributs colorimetriques les plus discriminants sont regroupes au sein d'un espace d'attributs colorimetriques adapte a la classification.

O monitoramento do meio ambiente e suas mudanças requer a análise de uma grade quantidade de imagens muitas vezes coletadas por satélites. No entanto, variações nos sinais devido a mudanças nas condições atmosféricas frequentemente resultam num deslocamento da distribuição dos dados para diferentes locais e datas. Isso torna difícil a distinção dentre as várias classes de uma base de dados construída a partir de várias imagens. Neste trabalho introduzimos uma nova abordagem de classificação supervisionada, chamada Classifica-Normaliza-Classifica (CNC), para amenizar o problema de deslocamento dos dados. A proposta é implementada usando dois classificadores. O primeiro é treinado em imagens não normalizadas de refletância de topo de atmosfera para distinguir dentre pixels de uma classe de interesse (CDI) e pixels de outras categorias (e.g. floresta versus não-floresta). Dada uma nova imagem de teste, o primeiro classificador gera uma segmentação das regiões da CDI e então um vetor mediano é calculado para os valores espectrais dessas áreas. Então, esse vetor é subtraído de cada pixel da imagem e portanto fixa a distribuição de dados de diferentes imagens num mesmo referencial. Finalmente, o segundo classificador, que é treinado para minimizar o erro de classificação em imagens já centralizadas pela mediana, é aplicado na imagem de teste normalizada no segundo passo para produzir a segmentação binária final. A metodologia proposta foi testada para detectar desflorestamento em pares de imagens co-registradas da Landsat 8 OLI sobre a floresta Amazônica. Experimentos usando imagens multiespectrais de refletância de topo de atmosfera mostraram que a CNC obteve maior acurácia na detecção de desflorestamento do que classificadores aplicados em imagens de refletância de superfície fornecidas pelo United States Geological Survey. As acurácias do método proposto também se mostraram superiores às obtidas pelas máscaras de desflorestamento do programa PRODES.<br>Monitoring natural environments and their changes over time requires the analysis of a large amount of image data, often collected by orbital remote sensing platforms. However, variations in the observed signals due to changing atmospheric conditions often result in a data distribution shift for different dates and locations making it difficult to discriminate between various classes in a dataset built from several images. This work introduces a novel supervised classification framework, called Classify-Normalize-Classify (CNC), to alleviate this data shift issue. The proposed scheme uses a two classifier approach. The first classifier is trained on non-normalized top-of-the-atmosphere reflectance samples to discriminate between pixels belonging to a class of interest (COI) and pixels from other categories (e.g. forest vs. non-forest). At test time, the estimated COI’s multivariate median signal, derived from the first classifier segmentation, is subtracted from the image and thus anchoring the data distribution from different images to the same reference. Then, a second classifier, pre-trained to minimize the classification error on COI median centered samples, is applied to the median-normalized test image to produce the final binary segmentation. The proposed methodology was tested to detect deforestation using bitemporal Landsat 8 OLI images over the Amazon rainforest. Experiments using top-of-the-atmosphere multispectral reflectance images showed that the deforestation was mapped by the CNC framework more accurately as compared to running a single classifier on surface reflectance images provided by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Accuracies from the proposed framework also compared favorably with the benchmark masks of the PRODES program.