Abstract

Segmentation and classification are two important computer vision tasks that transform input data into a compact representation that allow fast and efficient analysis. Several challenges exist in generating accurate segmentation or classification results. In a video, for example, objects often change the appearance and are partially occluded, making it difficult to delineate the object from its surroundings. This thesis proposes video segmentation and aerial image classification algorithms to address some of the problems and provide accurate results.

We developed a gradient driven three-dimensional segmentation technique that partitions a video into spatiotemporal objects. The algorithm utilizes the local gradient computed at each pixel location together with the global boundary map acquired through deep learning methods to generate initial pixel groups by traversing from low to high gradient regions. A local clustering method is then employed to refine these initial pixel groups. The refined sub-volumes in the homogeneous regions of video are selected as initial seeds and iteratively combined with adjacent groups based on intensity similarities. The volume growth is terminated at the color boundaries of the video. The over-segments obtained from the above steps are then merged hierarchically by a multivariate approach yielding a final segmentation map for each frame. In addition, we also implemented a streaming version of the above algorithm that requires a lower computational memory. The results illustrate that our proposed methodology compares favorably well, on a qualitative and quantitative level, in segmentation quality and computational efficiency with the latest state of the art techniques.

We also developed a convolutional neural network (CNN)-based method to efficiently combine information from multisensor remotely sensed images for pixel-wise semantic classification. The CNN features obtained from multiple spectral bands are fused at the initial layers of deep neural networks as opposed to final layers. The early fusion architecture has fewer parameters and thereby reduces the computational time and GPU memory during training and inference. We also introduce a composite architecture that fuses features throughout the network. The methods were validated on four different datasets: ISPRS Potsdam, Vaihingen, IEEE Zeebruges, and Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 dataset. For the Sentinel-1,-2 datasets, we obtain the ground truth labels for three classes from OpenStreetMap. Results on all the images show early fusion, specifically after layer three of the network, achieves results similar to or better than a decision level fusion mechanism. The performance of the proposed architecture is also on par with the state-of-the-art results.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Image analysis; Computer vision; Multisensor data fusion

Publication Date

4-2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Imaging Science (Ph.D.)

Department, Program, or Center

Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science (COS)

Advisor

Eli Saber

Advisor/Committee Member

Anthony Harkin

Advisor/Committee Member

Nathan D. Cahill

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

IMGS-PHD

Download

Share

COinS