Hyperspectral Image Clustering with Spatially-Regularized Ultrametrics

• Main Authors: Shukun Zhang, James M. Murphy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-03-01
• Series: Remote Sensing
• Subjects: unsupervised clustering; hyperspectral images; ultrametric path distances; spectral graph theory; parameter estimation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/5/955

We propose a method for the unsupervised clustering of hyperspectral images based on spatially regularized spectral clustering with ultrametric path distances. The proposed method efficiently combines data density and spectral-spatial geometry to distinguish between material classes in the data, without the need for training labels. The proposed method is efficient, with quasilinear scaling in the number of data points, and enjoys robust theoretical performance guarantees. Extensive experiments on synthetic and real HSI data demonstrate its strong performance compared to benchmark and state-of-the-art methods. Indeed, the proposed method not only achieves excellent labeling accuracy, but also efficiently estimates the number of clusters. Thus, unlike almost all existing hyperspectral clustering methods, the proposed algorithm is essentially parameter-free.