Denoising based Clustering Algorithm

for Classification of
Remote Sensing Image

B. Saichandana, M.L.Phanendra, P.Naga Srinivasu, Dr.K.Srinivas, Dr.R.Kiran Kumar

Abstract- Clustering is an unsupervised classification method widely used for classification of remote sensing images. However,
noises are introduced into the images during acquisition or transmission process, affecting the classification results. Noise reduction
is a prerequisite step prior to many information extraction attempts from remote sensing images. In order to overcome this
drawback, this paper presents a new clustering technique that can be used in classifying noisy remote sensing images without going
through any filtering stage. We call this method as Denoising Fuzzy Moving K-means Clustering algorithm (DFMK). The proposed
algorithm is able to minimize the effect of Salt-and-Pepper noise during the classification process without degrading the fine details
of the images. The method incorporates a noise detection stage to the clustering algorithm, producing an adaptive clustering based
classification technique specifically for classifying the noisy remote sensing images. The results obtained from the proposed
algorithm are more quantitative and qualitative than the conventional clustering algorithms in classifying the remote sensing images.

Index Terms- Remote Sensing, Salt-and-Pepper, Image Classification, Image Processing;


1 INTRODUCTION
Remote sensi ng can be defi ned as any process
whereby i nformati on i s gathered about an object,
area or phenomenon wi thout maki ng physi cal
contact wi th the object [1]. The remote sensi ng
technol ogy (aeri al sensor technol ogy) i s used to
cl assi fy objects on the Earth (both on the surface,
and i n the atmosphere and oceans) by means of
propagated si gnal s. New opportuni ti es to use
remote sensi ng data have ari sen, wi th the i ncrease
of spati al and spectral resol uti on of recentl y
l aunched satell i tes. Remote sensi ng i mage
cl assi ficati on i s a key technol ogy i n remote sensi ng
appl i cati ons [2]. Rapi d and hi gh accuracy remote
sensi ng i mage cl assi ficati on al gori thm i s the
precondi ti on of ki nds of practi cal appl i cati ons. In
remote sensi ng, sensors are avai l abl e that can
generate mul ti spectral data, i nvol vi ng fi ve to more
than hundred bands. In these i mages, a trade-off
exi sts between spati al and spectral resol uti on and
si gnal -to-noi se rati o, whi ch makes noi se handl i ng
i mportant. Thi s resul ts i n conventi onal
cl assi ficati on method l osi ng thei r advantages i n
cl assi fyi ng hi gh resol uti on remote sensi ng i mages.

At present, there i s di fferent i mage cl assi fi cati on
methods used for di fferent purposes by vari ous
researches. These techniques are di sti ngui shed i n
two mai n ways as supervi sed and unsupervi sed
cl assi ficati ons [3]. Supervi sed cl assi fi cati on has
di fferent sub-cl assi fi cati on methods whi ch are
named as paral l el epi ped, maxi mum l i kel i hood,
mi ni mum di stances and Fi sher cl assi fi er methods.
Unsupervi sed cl assi fi cati on has evol ved i n two
basi c strategi es [4], Iterati ve and Sequenti al . In an
i terati ve procedure such as K-Means or ISODATA,
an i ni tial number of desi red cl usters are sel ected,
and the centroi d l ocati ons are then moved around
unti l a stati sti cal l y opti mal fi t i s obtai ned. In a
sequenti al al gori thm such as Cl assi fi cati on by
Progressi ve General i sati on, the l arge number of
spectral combi nati ons i s gradual l y reduced
through a seri es of steps usi ng vari ous proxi mi ty
measures [5]. The above cl assi ficati on methods can
be appl i ed to noi se remote sensi ng i mages onl y
after performi ng pre-processi ng tasks l i ke fi l teri ng
al gori thm. To tackl e thi s probl em, we propose a
new cl usteri ng al gori thm for cl assi fyi ng noi sy
remote sensi ng i mages by i ncorporati ng the noi se
detecti on stage wi thi n the cl usteri ng al gori thm to
i ntroduce an adapti ve cl usteri ng based
cl assi ficati on technique. The adapti ve behavi or
JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617
https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing
WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG 28
enabl es the cl usteri ng al gori thm to cl assi fy the
noi sy i mage properl y even i n the occurrence of
sal t-and-pepper noi se wi thout goi ng through any
fil teri ng stage beforehand. The i nheri ted noi se
detecti on behavi or wil l i mprove the cl assi fi cati on
resul ts by onl y sel ecti ng noi se-free pi xel s for the
process of cl assi fi cati on.
Thi s paper i s organi zed as fol l ows. In Secti on II the
Fuzzy Movi ng k-means Cl usteri ng Al gori thm i s
presented. The proposed adapti ve cl usteri ng based
cl assi ficati on technique i s expl ai ned i n secti on III.
Secti on IV anal yses the resul ts obtai ned from the
proposed al gori thm wi th different noi se densi ti es
by usi ng qual i tati ve and quanti tati ve methods.

2 FUZZY MOVING K-MEANS (FMK)
CLUSTERING ALGORITHM
Consi der N as the number of pixel s to be clustered
i nto nc clusters. Each pi xel shoul d have a degree of
membershi p to cl usters rather than bel ongi ng to
one cl uster. The membershi p degree of a pi xel uij i s
a val ue i n (0, 1). The sum of al l membershi p val ues
of a pi xel bel ongi ng to cl usters shoul d sati sfy the
fol l owi ng constrai nt

,

i =1,2,.N (1)

where c i s the number of cl usters and N i s the
number of pi xel s i n remote sensi ng i mage.
Let vi be the i th data and cj be the jth center wi th
predetermi ned i ni ti al val ue where i =1,2,.N and
j=1,2, ..nc. For the FMK al gori thm, the objecti ve
functi on of cl usteri ng an i mage i nto cj cl usters i s
gi ven by
1 1
c
n N
m
ij ij
j i
F u d
= =
=

(2)
Where dij i s the Eucl i dean di stance from a pi xel to
a cl uster center gi ven as
2
ij i j
d v c =
and m, the
fuzzy exponent, i s an i nteger, m>1. Al l the data
wi l l be assi gned to the nearest center based on
Eucl i dean di stance.
The fi tness for each cl uster and the membershi p
val ue of i th data to the cluster center i s then
calcul ated usi ng:
2
( ) ( )
j
j i j
i c
f c v c
e
=

and
2
1
1
1
ij
m n
ij
k jk
u
d
d

=
=
| |
|
|
\ .

(3)
After speci fyi ng the membershi p for each data and
appl yi ng the fi tness cal cul ati on process, the
rel ati onshi p among the centers must fulfil l the
fol l owi ng condi ti on.
( ) ( )
s a l
f C f C >

and
( ) ( )
si li
u C u C >
(4)
Where f(Cs) i s the cluster that has the smal l est
fi tness val ue, f(Cl) i s the cl uster that has l argest
fi tness val ue,
a

i s a desi gned smal l constant wi th

i ni ti al val ue equal to 0<
a

< (1/3) , u(Csi) i s the

membershi p val ue of i th data accordi ng to the
smal l est center and u(Cli) i s the membershi p val ue
of i th data accordi ng to the l argest center.

If (4) i s not fulfil l ed, the members of Cl whi ch are
l arger than Cl are assi gned as members of Cs whi l e
the rest are mai ntai ned as members of Cl. Then the
posi ti on of Cl and Cs are recal cul ated usi ng:
1
s s
s t
t c
c
C v
n
e
=

and
1
l l
l t
t c
c
C v
n
e
=

(5)
The val ue of
a

i s updates accordi ng to
a
a a
c
n

=
. (6)
The above process i s repeated unti l (4) i s ful fi ll ed.

3 ADAPTIVE CLUSTERING BASED
CLASSIFICATION TECHNIQUE
1
1
c
ij
j
u
=
=

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617
https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing
WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG 29

We propose an adapti ve cl usteri ng based
cl assi ficati on technique for the remote sensi ng
i mages corrupted wi th sal t-and-pepper noi se. The
proposed techni que consi sts of two stages: The
first stage i nvol ves the noi se detecti on i n the i mage
and i n the second stage, we perform the cl usteri ng
process. The noi se free pi xel s wil l gi ve ful l
contri buti on on the cl usteri ng process, whereas for
the noi sy pi xel s, the fuzzy concept i s appl i ed to
determi ne the degree of contri buti on on the
cl usteri ng process.

First Stage: Noise Detection
In sal t and pepper type of noi se, the noi sy pi xel s
takes ei ther sal t val ue (gray l evel - 225) or pepper
val ue (gray l evel - 0) and i t appears as bl ack and
whi te spots on the remote sensi ng i mages wi th
certai n probabi li ties [6][10]. In thi s step, a bi nary
noi se mask i s constructed for the noi se remote
sensi ng i mage Y. When the gray level i mages i s
contami nated wi th sal t-and-pepper noi se, a noi sy
pi xel takes ei ther a maxi mum i ntensi ty val ue
(Imax= 255) or a mi ni mum i ntensi ty val ue (Imi n=
0). Thi s dynami c range [Imax , Imi n] provi de
i nformati on about the noi sy pi xel s i n the i mage.
The bi nary noi se mask N(i ,j) i s constructed by
assi gni ng a bi nary val ue 1, if the i ntensi ty of the
pi xel l ocated at posi ti on (i , j) i n the noi sy i mage i s
Imax or Imi n, otherwi se assi gn a bi nary val ue 0.
The bi nary noi se mask i s computed from the noi sy
i mage as fol l ows:

0, if Y(i ,j) =Imax
N(i ,j)= 0, if Y(i ,j) =Imi n
1, otherwi se (7)

Where Y(i ,j) i s the pixel at l ocati on (i ,j) wi th
i ntensi ty Y, N(i ,j)=1 represents the noi se-free pi xel
to be retai ned i n the cl usteri ng stage whil e N(i ,j)=0,
represents noi se pi xel s.

Second Stage: Clustering Process
In the second stage, a more versati l e and powerful
method of cl usteri ng-based cl assi fi cati on i n noi sy
remote sensi ng i mage i s devel oped. Before
assi gni ng each pi xel i n the remote sensi ng i mage to
thei r nearest center, check whether the pi xel i s
noi se-free or noi se by the use of bi nary noi se
mask. If the pixel Y(i ,j) i s noi se, the absol ute
di fference G(i +k,j+l ) between the nei ghbori ng
pi xel s and the central pi xel Y(i ,j) i n 3X3 wi ndow i s
calcul ated usi ng :
G(i +k , j+l ) = | Y(i +k , j+l ) Y(i ,j)|
wi th k,l
e
(-1,0,1) and Y(i +k,j+l )
=
Y(i ,j) (8)

The maxi mum val ue of the absol ute di fference
among the ei ght nei ghbori ng pi xel s of Y(i,j) i n the
3x3 wi ndow wil l be used as the fuzzy gradi ent
val ue. The fuzzy set processes the nei ghborhood
i nformati on represented by the fuzzy gradi ent
val ue to esti mate a correcti on term whi ch ai ms at
cancel li ng the noi se. Mathematicall y, the fuzzy set
F(i ,j) whi ch i s taken from [7][9] i s gi ven by


0 :
1
0 max( ( , )) G i j T s <

F(i ,j)=
1
2 1
max( ( , )) G i j T
T T

:

1 2
max( ( , )) T G i j T s <

1: otherwi se
(9)

Where
1 2
T andT
are the threshol ds to perform
parti al correcti on, and set to 10 and 30 respecti vel y
as descri bed i n [7]. The correcti on term Y
1
(i ,j) for
repl aci ng the current pi xel Y(i ,j) i s gi ven by

Y
1
(i,j)=( 1-F(i ,j) ) * Y(i ,j)+ F(i ,j) * mij , (10)

where mij i s the medi an of noi se-free pi xel s i n the
3x3 wi ndow. For each detected noi se pi xel , the
si ze of fi l teri ng wi ndow i s i ni ti ali zed to 3x3. If the
current fil teri ng wi ndow does not have a
mi ni mum number of one noi se-free pi xel , then
JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617
https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing
WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG 30
the fil teri ng wi ndow wi l l be expanded by one pi xel
at each of i ts four si des. Thi s procedure i s repeated
unti l the cri teri on of mi ni mum of one noi sefree
pi xel i s met. The search for the noi se free pi xel s i s
hal ted when the fil teri ng wi ndow reached a si ze of
7x7. When the fi l tered wi ndow has reached the
si ze of 7x7 al though no noi se-free pi xel i s
detected, then the fi rst four pi xel s i n the 3x3
fil teri ng wi ndow i s used to compute mij.

mij = medi an{ Y(i -1,j-1), Y(i ,j-1), Y(i +1,j-1), Y(i -1,j)}.
(11)
To i ncrease the robustness of FMK cl usteri ng
towards noi se, these corrected val ues (for noi se
pi xel s) are used to repl ace the ori gi nal pi xel s
val ues duri ng the process of assi gni ng the data to
thei r nearest center. The term vi i n (2) i s substi tuted
by
Y(i ,j) i f N(i ,j)=1
vi=
Y
1
(i ,j) if N(i ,j)=0 (12)

By empl oyi ng thi s concept i nto Fuzzy Movi ng k-
means Cl usteri ng Al gori thm, the new proposed
al gori thm i s cal l ed Denoi si ng Fuzzy movi ng k-
means Cl usteri ng Al gori thm.

4 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

Qualitative Analysis:
In thi s secti on, we present the experi mental resul ts
of the proposed al gori thm on a remote sensi ng
i mage contami nated by di fferent l evel s of sal t-and-
pepper noi se. The proposed method i s performed
on a remote sensi ng i mage that consi sts of a total of
38808 pi xel s. The cl assi fi cati on resul ts by the
proposed al gori thm are shown i n fi gure 3 and
fi gure 5. Fi gure 1 shows the remote sensi ng i mage
corrupted wi th 10 %, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%
densi ty of sal t-and-pepper noi se. Fi gure 2 and 4
shows the cl assi fi cati on resul ts produced by K-
means cl usteri ng al gori thm (2, 4 cl usters) for the
noi sy i mages i n fi gure 1. From the resul ts, we can
vi sual i ze that the resul ts produced i n cl assi fyi ng
the remote sensi ng i mage by the cl usteri ng
al gori thms (K-means, FCM etc) are i nfl uenced by
the noi se, whi ch i ndicates that the al gori thms are
l ess robust to noi se mi xture. In thi s paper, we use
K-means cl usteri ng al gori thm for compari son wi th
the proposed al gori thm. The noi se contami nati on
has hi ghl y affected the cl usteri ng process i n the
cl usteri ng al gori thm whi ch contri butes to poor
cl assi ficati on resul ts. The proposed al gori thm i s
seen to have successful l y mi ni mi zed the i nfl uence
of noi se from affecti ng the cl assi ficati on process
and achi eved sati sfactory resul ts.

Quantitative Analysis:
In thi s secti on, we have tabul ated a quanti tati ve
eval uati on of the cl usteri ng resul t by usi ng the
functi on [8]

2
1
( )
p
i
i
i
e
F I p
A
=
=

(13)

Where I i s the cl ustered i mage to be eval uated, p i s
the number of regi ons found, Ai i s the si ze of i -th
regi on, p(Ai) i s the number of regi ons wi th the area
Ai and ei i s defi ned as the sum of Eucl i dean
di stances between the features of pi xel s of regi on I
and the correspondi ng regi on i n the clustered
i mage. The val ues of the functi on for the clustered
remote sensi ng i mage usi ng k-means and
proposed method are tabul ated i n tabl e 1. The
fi ndi ngs can therefore concl ude that the proposed
method serve as a better approach for cl assi fyi ng
noi se remote sensi ng i mage.







JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617
https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing
WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG 31

Original Image Noise Image ( 10% ) Noise Image (20% ) Noise Image ( 30% )














Noise Image ( 40% ) Noise Image ( 50% )





Fig 1: Remote sensing image corrupted by salt-and-pepper noise with different probabilities

Original Image Noise Image ( 10%) Noise Image ( 20%) Noise Image (30%)

















Noise Image ( 40%) Noise Image ( 50%)






Fig 2: Results by K-means Clustering Algorithm on noise images (2 clusters)


JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617
https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing
WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG 32
Original Image Noise Image ( 10%) Noise Image ( 20%) Noise Image ( 30%)
















Noise Image ( 40%) Noise Image ( 50%)






Fig 3: Results obtained by proposed method on noise images (2 clusters)

Original Image Noise Image ( 10%) Noise Image ( 20%) Noise Image ( 30%)















Noise Image ( 40%) Noise Image ( 50%)







Fig 4: Results by K-means Clustering Algorithm on noise images (4 clusters)


JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617
https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing
WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG 33
Original Image Noise Image ( 10%) Noise Image (20%) Noise Image (30%)













Noise Image (40%) Noise Image ( 50%)





Fig 5: Results obtained by proposed method on noise images (4 clusters)

Table 1: Evaluation of function F(I) for two different algorithms
Noise Density K-means (2-clusters) Proposed Method (2-
clusters)
10 74.8323 22.4939
20 76.0528 32.0731
30 81.7272 44.0232
40 88.8398 52.2130
50 92.2579 56.6151

CONCLUSION
Thi s paper presents new adapti ve cl usteri ng based
cl assi ficati on technique for cl assi ficati on of noi se-
corrupted remote sensi ng i mage. The quali tati ve
and quantitati ve anal ysi s favor the proposed
al gori thm, produci ng better resul ts as compared to
the K-means cl usteri ng al gori thm through i ts
i ncl usi on of the noi se detecti on stage i n the
cl usteri ng process. Thi s stage can reduce the effect
of noi se duri ng the cl usteri ng process. In addi ti on
the proposed al gori thm has al so successful l y
preserved i mportant features on remote sensi ng
i mages. Thi s method i s a good techni que for
cl assi ficati on of noi sy remote sensi ng i mage
wi thout goi ng through any fi l teri ng stage.


REFERENCES
[1] Yi Ma, Ji e Zhang, Yufeng Gao, Hi gh
Resol uti on Remote Sensi ng Image
Cl assi fi cati on of Coastal Zone and i ts
Automati c Real i zati on , 2008
Internati onal Conference on
Computer Sci ence and Software
Engi neeri ng, 2008 IEEE.
[2] Xi aofang Li u, Xi aowen Li , Yi ng
Zhang, Cunjian Yang, Wenbo Xu, Mi n
Li , Huanmi n Luo , Remote Sensi ng
Image Cl assi ficati on Usi ng Functi on
Wei ghted FCM Cl usteri ng
Al gori thm , 2007 IEEE.
[3] Aykut AKGN, A.Hsn ERONAT
and Necdet TRKa, Compari ng
di fferent satel li te i mage cl assi fi cati on
methods: an appl i cati on i n ayval i k
di stri ct,western, Turkey.
JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617
https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing
WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG 34
[4] Josef Ci hlar, Rasi m Latifovi c, Jean
Beaubi en, A Compari son of
Cl usteri ng Strategi es for
Unsupervi sed Cl assi fi cati on,
Canadi an Journal of Remote Sensi ng,
February 2000.
[5] D. LU and Q. WENG, A survey of
i mage cl assi ficati on methods and
techniques for i mprovi ng
cl assi ficati on performance ,
Internati onal Journal of Remote
Sensi ng, Vol . 28, No. 5, 10 March 2007,
823870.
[6] W.Lou, Effici ent Removal of
Impul se Noi se From Di gi tal Images ,
IEEE Transacti on on Consumer
El ectronics, Vol . 52, no.2, pp.523-527,
2006.
[7] K.K.V.Toh, H.Ibrahi m, and
M.N.Mahyuddi n, Sal t and Pepper
Noi se Detecti on And Reducti on Usi ng
Fuzzy swi tchi ng Medi an Fi lter , IEEE
Transacti ons on Consumer
el ectronics, vol .54, no.4, pp.1956-1961,
2008.
[8] J.Li u, Y.H.Yang, Mul ti resol uti on
col or i mage segmentati on , IEEE
Transacti on on Pattern and Machi ne
Inteli gence, Vol . 16, no.7, pp 689-700,
1994.
[9] Kenny Kal Vi n Toh, Nor Ashi di Mat
Isa, Noi se Adapti ve Fuzzy Swi tchi ng
Medi an Fi l ter for Sal t-and-Pepper
Noi se Reducti on , IEEE Si gnal
Processi ng Letters, Vol 17, No 3,
March 2010, pp 281-285.
[10] M.Premakumar, J.Hari kiran,
B.Sai chandana, Dr.P.Rajesh Kumar,
Performance Eval uati on of Image
Fusi on for Impul se Noi se Reducti on
i n Di gi tal Images Usi ng an Image
Qual i ty Assessment, IJCSI ,
Internati onal Journal of Computer
Sci ence Issues, Vol . 8, Issue 4, No 1,
Jul y 2011, pp 407-411






B.Saichandana: i s a member of IEEE. She i s
currentl y worki ng as Assi stant Professor, i n the
department of CSE, GIT, GITAM Uni versi ty.
Research work i s i n Image Processi ng.
Dr.K.Srinivas: Currentl y worki ng as a Professor,
i n the Department of CSE, VR Si ddhartha
Engi neeri ng Coll ege Vi jayawada.
Dr.R.KiranKumar: Worki ng as a Assi stant
Professor, i n the Department of Computer Sci ence,
Kri shna Uni versi ty, Machi li patnam.






































JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 4, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2012, ISSN (Online) 2151-9617
https://sites.google.com/site/journalofcomputing
WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG 35