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This article presents a method for the automatic learning of the potentials of a stochastic model, in particular a conditional random field (CRF), in a non-parametric fashion. The proposed model is based on a neural architecture, in order to leverage the modeling capabilities of deep learning (DL) approaches to directly learn semantic and spatial information from the input data. Specifically, the methodology is based on fully convolutional networks and fully connected neural networks. The idea is to access the multiscale information intrinsically extracted in the intermediate layers of a fully convolutional network through the integration of fully connected neural networks at different scales, while favoring the interpretability of the hidden layers as posterior probabilities. The potentials of the CRF are learned through an additional convolutional layer, whose kernel models the local spatial information considered. The loss function is computed as a linear combination of cross-entropy losses, accounting for the multiscale and the spatial information. To evaluate the capabilities of the proposed approach for the semantic segmentation of remote sensing images, the experimental validation was conducted with the ISPRS 2-D semantic labeling challenge Vaihingen and Potsdam datasets and with the IEEE GRSS data fusion contest Zeebruges dataset. As the ground truths of these benchmark datasets are spatially exhaustive, they have been modified to approximate the spatially sparse ground truths common in real remote sensing applications. The results are significant, as the proposed approach obtains higher average classification accuracies than recent state-of-the-art techniques considered in this article. The code is available at https://github.com/Ayana-Inria/CRFNet-RS.

This paper focuses on the classification of multichannel images. The proposed supervised Bayesian classification method applied to histological (medical) optical images and to remote sensing (optical and synthetic aperture radar) imagery consists of two steps. The first step introduces the joint statistical modeling of the coregistered input images. For each class and each input channel, the class-conditional marginal probability density functions are estimated by finite mixtures of well-chosen parametric families. For optical imagery, the normal distribution is a well-known model. For radar imagery, we have selected generalized gamma, log-normal, Nakagami and Weibull distributions. Next, the multivariate d-dimensional Clayton copula, where d can be interpreted as the number of input channels, is applied to estimate multivariate joint class-conditional statistics. As a second step, we plug the estimated joint probability density functions into a hierarchical Markovian model based on a quadtree structure. Multiscale features are extracted by discrete wavelet transforms, or by using input multiresolution data. To obtain the classification map, we integrate an exact estimator of the marginal posterior mode.

An unsupervised change detection problem can be viewed as a classification problem with only two classes corresponding to the change and no-change areas, respectively. Thanks to its simplicity, image differencing is a widely used approach to change detection. It is based on the idea of generating a difference image that represents the modulus of the spectral change vector associated with each pixel in the study area. To separate the “change” and “no-change” classes in the difference image, a simple thresholding-based procedure can be applied. However, the selection of the best threshold value is not a trivial problem. We investigate and compare several simple thresholding methods. The combination of the expectation-maximization algorithm with a thresholding method is also performed for the purpose of achieving a better estimate of the optimal threshold value. As an experimental investigation, a study area damaged by a forest fire is considered. Two Landsat TM images of the area acquired before and after the event are utilized to detect the burnt zones and to assess and compare the mentioned unsupervised change-detection methods. © 2002 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Abstract not available.