Remote sensing image segmentation using feature based fusion on FCM clustering algorithm

Abstract

Abstract Image segmentation of heterogeneous comparable objects lying beneath the earth’s surface is a fundamental but challenging research area in remote sensing. Learning approaches are used in remote sensing image segmentation to improve segmentation accuracy at the expense of time and a large amount of data, but their performance need to be finely classified due to information diversity constraints. In this work, we proposed an novel feature based fuzzy C-means-extreme learning machine (FBFCM-ELM) algorithm for remote sensing image segmentation in which the classification based on entropy, intensity, and edge features is performed in such a way that it updates the intensity value to preserve the most local characteristics in the image while still being able to clearly distinguish the image’s boundaries by assigning the pixel values of each cluster to the peak value of the cluster’s sub-histogram. Using FBFCM, features are extracted and used as reliable samples for ELM training. Undetermined segmented pixels are obtained using the trained ELM classifier. Experiments performed over number of images that confirmed the proposed method yields a better segmented RGB image, as evidenced by observable details, edges, and improved appearance that resembles the ground truth image and outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms.

Keywords

• Image segmentation
• Remote sensing
• Clustering
• Fuzzy C-means