A shallow network for hyperspectral image classification using an autoencoder with convolutional neural network

This paper addresses an approach for the classification of hyperspectral imagery (HSI). In remote sensing, the HSI sensor acquires hundreds of images with narrow and continuous spectral width in visible and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. Such nature of data acquisition is very useful in the classification and/or the identification of different objects present in the HSI data. However, the low-spatial resolution and large volume of HS images make it more challenging. In the proposed approach, we use an autoencoder with convolutional neural network (AECNN) for the classification of HS images. Pre-processing with autoencoder enhances the features in the HS images which helps to obtain optimized weights in the initial layers of the CNN model. Hence, shallow CNN architecture can be utilized to extract features from the pre-processed HSI data which are used further for the classification of the same. The potential of the proposed approach has been verified by conducting many experiments on various datasets. The classification results obtained using the proposed method are compared with many state-of-the-art deep learning based methods including the winner of the geoscience and remote sensing society (GRSS) Image Fusion Contest-2018 on HSI classification held at IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS)-2018 and it shows superiority over those methods.

Automated summary

This paper discusses an approach for hyperspectral image classification using an autoencoder and convolutional neural network. The method enhances features in HSI data through preprocessing and optimized weights, showing superiority in classification compared to other deep learning methods.