Thesis Defense

Defense: Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008, 10:00 am, LIAMA, Beijing, China.

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Title: New higher-order active contour models, shape priors, and multiscale analysis: their application to road network extraction from very high resolution satellite images

Abstract: The objective of this thesis is to develop and validate robust approaches for the semi-automatic extraction of road networks in dense urban areas from very high resolution (VHR) optical satellite images. Our models are based on the recently developed higher-order active contour (HOAC) phase field framework. The problem is difficult for two main reasons: VHR images are intrinsically complex and network regions may have arbitrary topology. To tackle the complexity of the information contained in VHR images, we propose a multiresolution statistical data model and a multiresolution constrained prior model. They enable the integration of segmentation results from coarse resolution and fine resolution. Subsequently, for the particular case of road map updating, we present a specific shape prior model derived from an outdated GIS digital map. This specific prior term balances the effect of the generic prior knowledge carried by the HOAC model, which describes the geometric shape of road networks in general. However, the classical HOAC model suffers from a severe limitation: network branch width is constrained to be similar to maximum network branch radius of curvature, thereby providing a poor model of networks with straight narrow branches or highly curved, wide branches. We solve this problem by introducing two new models: one with an additional nonlinear nonlocal HOAC term, and one with an additional linear nonlocal HOAC term. Both terms allow separate control of branch width and branch curvature, and furnish better prolongation for the same width, but the linear term has several advantages: it is more efficient from a computational standpoint, and it is able to model multiple widths simultaneously. To cope with the difficulty of parameter selection of these models, we analyze the stability conditions for a long bar with a given width described by these energies, and hence show how to choose rigorously the parameters of the energy functions. Experiments on VHR satellite images and comparisons with other approaches demonstrate the superiority of our models.

Keywords: higher-order, active contour, phase field, prior, constraint, shape, multiresolution, parameter, road network extraction, map updating, very high resolution (VHR), dense urban area, remote sensing images.

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Manuscript: available online (~19MB, in English and in Chinese).

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Slides of the defense: available online (~12MB, in English).

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Movies: available online (~20MB).



Last update: Dec. 10, 2008