基于上下文分析的无监督分层迭代算法用于SAR图像分割

基于聚类的分割算法能够有效地分析目标特征在特征域的分布结构,进而准确判断目标的所属类别,但难以利用图像的空间和边缘信息,而基于区域增长的分割算法能够在空间域利用多种图像信息计算目标之间的相似性,但缺乏对特征结构本身的深层挖掘,容易出现欠分割或过分割的结果. 本文结合这两种算法各自的优势,针对合成孔径雷达（Synthetic aperture radar,SAR）图像的特点,提出了一种基于上下文分析的无监督分层迭代算法. 该算法使用过分割区域作为操作单元,以提高分割速度,降低SAR图像相干斑噪声的影响. 在合并过分割区域时,该算法采用了分层迭代的策略:首先,设计了一种改进的模糊C均值聚类算法,对过分割区域的外观特征进行聚类分析,获得其类别标记,该类别标记包含了特征的分布结构信息. 然后,利用多种SAR图像特征对同类区域的空域上下文进行分析,使用区域迭代增长算法对全局范围内的相似区域进行合并,直到不存在满足合并条件的过分割区域对为止,再重新执行聚类算法. 这两种子算法分层交替迭代,扬长避短,实现了一种有效的方法来组织和利用多种信息对SAR图像进行分割. 对模拟和真实SAR图像的实验表明,本文提出的算法能够在区域一致性和细节保留之间做到很好的平衡,准确地分割出各类目标区域,对相干斑噪声具有很强的鲁棒性.     

A segmentation algorithm for SAR images based on the anisotropic heat diffusion equation

A method toward unsupervised segmentation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is proposed. In this method, the distribution of SAR intensity image and the maximum a posteriori (MAP) algorithm is used to obtain an initial segmentation. Then according to the equivalence between the solid heat diffusion model and image scale-space, multiscale anisotropic smoothing of the posterior probability matrixes is introduced to remove the influence of speckle and to preserve important structure information. The effectiveness of this algorithm is demonstrated by application to simulated and real SAR images.     

基于马尔可夫随机场的SAR图象目标分割

运动、静止目标获取与识别（MSTAR）计划表明，将合成孔径雷达（SAP）图象分割成目标、阴影和背景杂波区域对于从开放环境中进行目标识别是一种有效的手段。但是由于SAP图象所固有的斑点噪声的影响，传统的分割方法很难获得准确的分割。为此提出了一种基于MRF(Markov random field)模型的SAP图象分割算法。用MRF模型描述待分割图象的先验知识，利用最大似然（ML）估计从训练数据中获得图象各区域的先验概率分布，采用Bayes方法，在观测数据基础上，根据分割图象的后验分布所对应的MRF模型的条件概率，利用Metroplis采样器获得最大后验概率（MAP）准则下的图象分割。通过对MSTAR的样本目标图象应用该算法，结果表明它可以获得稳健和准确的分割效果。     

基于多尺度特征融合的SAR图像分割

由于存在相干斑噪声的影响,给SAR图像分割造成很大的困难,提出一种基于多尺度特征融合的SAR图像分割方法。该方法利用快速离散curvelet变换提取图像的纹理特征,利用平稳小波变换提取图像的统计特征,将两种多尺度特征融合成高维的特征向量,采用模糊C均值聚类的方法进行分割。在仿真SAR图像和真实SAR图像的分割实验结果表明,提出的方法优于单独采用小波变换进行SAR图像分割的方法,在消除均质区内碎块的同时,使得边界更为精准和平滑。     

Utilisation of contour criteria in micro-segmentation of SAR images

The segmentation of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images is greatly complicated by the presence of coherent speckle. To carry out this process a hierarchical segmentation algorithm based on stepwise optimization is used. It starts with each individual pixel as a segment and then sequentially merges the segment pair that minimizes the criterion. In a hypothesis testing approach, we show how the stepwise merging criterion is derived from the probability model of image regions. The Ward criterion is derived from the Gaussian additive noise model. A new criterion is derived from the multiplicative speckle noise model of SAR images. The first merging steps produce micro-regions. With standard merging criteria, the high noise level of SAR images results in the production of micro-regions that have unreliable mean and variance values and irregular shapes. If the micro-segments are not correctly delimited then the following steps will merge segments from different fields. In examining the evolution of the initial segments, we see that the merging should take into account spatial aspects. In particular, the segment contours should have good shapes. We present three measures based on contour shapes, using the perimeter, the area and the boundary length of segments. These measures are combined with the SAR criterion in order to guide correctly the segment merging process. The new criterion produces good micro-segmentation of SAR images. The criterion is also used in the following merges to produce larger segments. This is illustrated by synthetic and real image results.     

A novel multi-scale level set method for SAR image segmentation based on a statistical model

To overcome the problems of large data volumes and strong speckle noise in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, a multi-scale level set approach for SAR image segmentation is proposed in this article. Because the multi-scale analysis of SAR images preserves their highest resolution features while additionally making use of sets of images at lower resolutions to improve specific functions, the proposed method is useful for removing the influence of speckle and, at the same time, preserving important structural information. The Gamma distribution is one of the most commonly used models employed to represent the statistical characteristics of speckle noise in a SAR image and it is introduced to define the energy functional. Moreover, based on the multi-scale level set framework, an improved multi-layer approach is introduced for multi-region segmentation. To obtain a fast and more accurate result, a novel threshold segmentation result is used to represent the initial segmentation curve. The experiments with synthetic and real SAR images demonstrate the effectiveness of the new method.     

High-resolution SAR images segmentation using NSCT denoising and QIGA based parameters selection of PCNN model

The high-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images usually contain inhomogeneous coherent speckle noises. For the high-resolution SAR image segmentation with such noises, the conventional methods based on pulse coupled neural networks (PCNN) have to face heavy parameters with a low efficiency. In order to solve the problems, this paper proposes a novel SAR image segmentation algorithm based on non-subsampling Contourlet transform (NSCT) denoising and quantum immune genetic algorithm (QIGA) improved PCNN models. The proposed method first denoising the SAR images for a pre-processing based on NSCT. Then, by using the QIGA to select parameters for the PCNN models, such models self-adaptively select the suitable parameters for segmentation of SAR images with different scenes. This method decreases the number of parameters in the PCNN models and improves the efficiency of PCNN models. At last, by using the optimal threshold to binary the segmented SAR images, the small objects and large scales from the original SAR images will be segmented. To validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, four different comparable experiments are applied to validate the proposed algorithm. Experimental results have shown that NSCT pre-processing has a better performance for coherent speckle noises suppression, and QIGA-PCNN model based on denoised SAR images has an obvious segmentation performance improvement on region consistency and region contrast than state-of-the-arts methods. Besides, the segmentation efficiency is also improved than conventional PCNN model, and the level of time complexity meets the state-of-the-arts methods. Our proposed NSCT+QIGA-PCNN model can be used for small object segmentation and large scale segmentation in high-resolution SAR images. The segmented results will be further used for object classification and recognition, regions of interest extraction, and moving object detection and tracking.

     

多区域SAR图像分割的改进水平集方法

由于合成孔径雷达（SAR）图像易受相干斑噪声的影响,光学图像的分割方法并不适用于SAR图像,更不能获得精确的分割结果对比,因此,首先基于GA^0统计模型定义能量映射函数以代替像素值进行后续处理,减小相干斑的影响;其次,使用水平集算法对处理后的图像进行分割处理,选用了一种形式更为简单的水平集函数,并可以较容易地推广到多区域SAR图像分割情况。实验结果表明,该方法可以减少相干斑噪声对SAR图像分割过程的不良影响,具有较好的准确性。     

区域GMM聚类的SAR图像分割

高斯混合模型(GMM)聚类算法近年来广泛应用于图像分割领域。但在SAR图像分割中,由于忽略了图像像素间的空间相关性,使其对相干斑噪声十分敏感。提出一种基于区域的GMM聚类算法,它将空间相关性引入聚类分类中,利用分水岭分割得到基本同质区域,计算区域的灰度均值作为GMM聚类算法的输入样本,将聚类特征从像素水平提升到区域水平,减少了噪声对分割结果的影响;并将自身反馈机制引入期望最大化(EM)算法中,进一步提高了GMM模型参数估计的精度。还对合成图像和真实SAR图像进行了分割实验,结果表明新算法可有效地提高分割的     

Multiregion level-set partitioning of synthetic aperture radar images

The purpose of this study is to investigate synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image segmentation into a given but arbitrary number of gamma homogeneous regions via active contours and level sets. The segmentation of SAR images is a difficult problem due to the presence of speckle which can be modeled as strong, multiplicative noise. The proposed algorithm consists of evolving simple closed planar curves within an explicit correspondence between the interiors of curves and regions of segmentation to minimize a criterion containing a term of conformity of data to a speckle model of noise and a term of regularization. Results are shown on both synthetic and real images.     

SAR imagery segmentation by statistical region growing and hierarchical merging

This paper presents an algorithm to segment synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, corrupted by speckle noise. Most standard segmentation techniques may require speckle filtering previously. Our approach performs radar image segmentation using the original noisy pixels as input data, i.e. without any preprocessing step. The algorithm includes a statistical region growing procedure combined with hierarchical region merging. The region growing step oversegments the input radar image, thus enabling region aggregation by employing a combination of the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS) test with a hierarchical stepwise optimization (HSWO) algorithm for performance improvement. We have tested and assessed the proposed technique on artificially speckled image and real SAR data.     

基于引导滤波和Tsallis熵的SAR图像分割算法

针对合成孔径雷达(SAR)图像易受噪声干扰、分割方法精度低的问题,提出了一种基于频域引导滤波和Tsallis熵的SAR图像多阈值分割算法.利用非下采样Contourlet变换(NSCT)对图像多尺度分解,提取图像各方向的高频信息;通过引导滤波增强高频分量的边缘信息,在保持边缘的同时抑制了相干斑噪声;利用改进的二维Tsallis熵多阈值对增强图像精确分割.实验结果表明:分割算法对噪声不敏感,分割精度和适应性明显提高.     

基于描述方法的SAR图像分割*

针对减少SAR图像分割中自由参数的问题,提出了基于最小描述长度的SAR图像分割方法。该方法经对数变换将SAR图像乘性噪声转换为加性噪声,对其建立描述模型,在描述长度最短意义上计算出重建图像,在假设SAR图像各区域实际地物后向散射特性对应的像素值恒定的前提下,该重建图像即为SAR图像的分割结果。该方法在分割的同时很好地抑制了SAR图像的相干斑噪声,保留了原始SAR图像的区域边界,并且不需要参数调节,整个分割过程自动完成,是一种非监督SAR图像分割方法。给出了该方法的具体实现步骤,实验结果验证了该方法的有效性。     

一种基于视觉特性的遥感图像分割

SAR图像存在乘性相干斑的影响,传统的图像分割方法不能很好保持图像的结构信息．文章研究了基于视觉特性的组合分割方法,该方法通过塔型方向滤波器组进行去噪,发展了各向异性的核期望转移滤波器,核的形状、尺度和方向都能自适应图像的局部结构,最后结合边缘检测对图像分割进行修正．分析和实验表明该方法对SAR图像是有效的．     

改进的基于非局部均值的极化SAR相干斑抑制

贝叶斯形式的非局部均值模型在极化SAR图像相干斑抑制中有良好的应用,在实现抑制相干斑的同时较好地保持了边缘细节和点目标.通过分析合成孔径雷达(SAR)图像多视数据的空间统计分布,结合贝叶斯形式的非局部均值模型,得出在该模型下多视与单视SAR图像中像素间相似性度量函数一致性的结论,并对该相似性度量函数进行了修正,使之满足对称性;最后针对算法全局使用一个固定滤波参数影响滤波效果的问题,提出一种根据像素间相似程度自适应选取滤波参数的方法.实验结果验证了本文算法的有效性.     

Typhoon eye extraction with an automatic SAR image segmentation method

Spaceborne microwave synthetic aperture radar (SAR), with its high spatial resolution (10–100 m), large area coverage, and day/night imaging capability, has been used as an important tool for typhoon monitoring. Since the microwave signal can penetrate through clouds, SAR images reveal typhoon morphology at the sea surface. Within the region of a typhoon eye, wind speed and the associated sea surface roughness are usually low. Therefore, the typhoon eye can be well distinguished as dark areas in SAR images. However, automatic typhoon eye extraction from SAR images is hampered by SAR image speckle noise and other false-alarm dark features contained in an image. In this study, we propose an image processing approach to extract typhoon eyes from SAR images. The three-step image processing includes: (1) applying an extended non-local means image denoizing algorithm to reduce image speckle noise; (2) applying a top-hat transform to denoized imagery to enhance the contrast; and (3) using a labelled watershed to segment the typhoon eye. Experimental results from analysing three Environmental Satellite SAR typhoon images show that our approach provides fast and efficient SAR image segmentation for typhoon eye extraction. Typhoon eyes are segmented correctly, and their edges are well detected. Our experimental results are comparable to manually extracted typhoon eye information. Fine-tuning of this approach will provide an automatic tool for typhoon eye information extraction from SAR images.     

一种基于纹理特征融合的SAR图像分割方法

在由若干灰度共生矩阵纹理统计量进行特征融合后所生成的图像上,定义多分辨双Markov-GAR模型,采用多分辨MPM参数估计方法及相应的无监督分割算法,对SAR图像进行纹理分割。该方法既利用了像素的灰度信息,也利用了像素的空间位置信息,削弱了斑点噪声对分割的影响。实验表明对于一些高分辨SAR图像,该方法与单纯基于灰度图像上的多分辨双Markov-GAR模型纹理分割相比,分割精度得以提高。     

Study on segmentation and interpretation of multi-look polarimetric SAR images

The segmentation and interpretation of multi-look polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images is studied. We first introduce a multi-look polarimetric whitening filter (MPWF) to reduce the speckle in multi-look polarimetric SAR images. Then, by utilizing the wavelet multiresolution approach to extract the texture information in different scales and the Markov random field (MRF) model to characterize the spatial constraints between pixels in each scale level, a multiresolution segmentation algorithm (MSA) to segment the speckle-reduced SAR images is presented. The MSA first segments the image at the lowest resolution level and then proceeds to progressively higher resolutions until individual pixels are well classified. An unsupervised step to estimate both the optimal number of texture classes and their model parameters is also included in the MSA so that the segmentation can be implemented without supervision. Finally, in order to interpret the results of the unsupervised segmentation and to understand the whole polarimetric SAR image, we develop an image interpretation approach which jointly utilizes the scattering mechanism identification and target decomposition approaches. Experimental results with the real-world multi-look polarimetric SAR image demonstrate the effectiveness of the segmentation and interpretation approaches.     

Multiscale SAR image segmentation by combining curvelet transform and GMTRJ algorithms

To integrate multiscale analysis within region-based segmentation framework, this paper presents multiscale SAR image segmentation method. First, curvelet transform is used to obtain a collection of the decomposed SAR images on multiple scales. Their domain is partitioned into a set of blocks by a regular tessellation, in which the number of blocks is assumed to be a random variable with Poisson distribution. On the partitioned domain, the Bayesian paradigm is followed to build the region- and multiscale-based image segmentation model with unknown number of classes. Further, a Generalized Multiple-Try Reversible Jump (GMTRJ) algorithm is designed to simulate the segmentation model. During the procedure of iterative simulation for the segmentation model, the segmentation result on the current scale is regarded as the initial segmentation on next scale. The segmented results corresponding to the finest scale is considered as the optimal image segmentation. The proposed method is validated using SAR images. The Kappa coefficient of the test simulated SAR image is up to 0.998, and the Kappa coefficients of the test real SAR images are up or equal to 0.903. From the test results of the quantitative and qualitative evaluation, it can be found that the proposed method can not only determine the number of classes, but also segment homogeneous regions well.