Evaluation of semivariogram features for object-based image classification

Inclusion of textures in image classification has been shown beneficial. This paper studies an efficient use of semivariogram features for object-based high-resolution image classification. First, an input image is divided into segments, for each of which a semivariogram is then calculated. Second, candidate features are extracted as a number of key locations of the semivariogram functions. Then we use an improved Relief algorithm and the principal component analysis to select independent and significant features. Then the selected prominent semivariogram features and the conventional spectral features are combined to constitute a feature vector for a support vector machine classifier. The effect of such selected semivariogram features is compared with those of the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) features and window-based semivariogram texture features (STFs). Tests with aerial and satellite images show that such selected semivariogram features are of a more beneficial supplement to spectral features. The described method in this paper yields a higher classification accuracy than the combination of spectral and GLCM features or STFs.