CONTENT

• Image Interpretation
• Visual Image Interpretation
• Elements of Visual Image Interpretation
• Digital Image Classification
• Image Classification Methods
• Supervised Classification
• Stages of Supervised Classification

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VISUAL IMAGE
INTERPRETATION
 IMAGE INTERPRETATION
• When we look at images, we see various objects of
different shape and sizes
• Some of these may be readily identifiable while other
may not be, depending upon individual’s perceptions
and experience
• When we can identify what we see on the images and
communicate to others we are practicing IMAGE
INTERPRETATION
• Images contain raw data which when processed by
humans becomes useable information
 INTEREPRETATION
• The act of examining images for the purpose of
identifying objects and judging their significance
VISUAL IMAGE INTERPRETATION
• Visual analysis is the most intuitive way to extract
information from RS data, as it is based on the human’s
ability to relate colors, shapes and patterns in an image to
the real world features
• Human vision goes a step beyond color perception, rather
the ability of a person to draw conclusions by visual
observation
• Training and experience with keen power of observation,
imagination and patience
• Nature of objects or phenomena
• Quality of image
• Other supporting materials such as:
• Maps and reports
• Field observations
 ELEMENTS OF VISUAL
INTERPRETATION
• Shape
• Tone
• Pattern
• Site
• Resolution
• Size
• Shadow
• Texture- (For a group of neighboring pixels)
• Association
 SHAPE

• Refers to general form ,structure,

or outline of individual objects
• Can be very distinctive clue for
interpretation
• Straight edge shapes typically
represents urban or agricultural
fields
• Natural features are generally
irregular in shape
• All shape may not be distinctive
but every shape is of some
significance to the interpreter
 SIZE
• Size of object are observed as
– Absolute
– Relative
• Size( absolute) of an object in
an image is function of scale
• Size of object relative to other
objects in a scene aids in
interpretation
• A quick approximation of
target size directs to
interpretation
• For land use, large buildings
such as factories and
warehouses would indicate
commercial areas where as
small will indicate residential
use
 PATTERN

• It refers to spatial arrangement of

visibly discernible objects
• An orderly repetition of similar tones
and textures will produce a distinctive
and recognizable pattern
• Orchards with evenly spaced trees and
urban streets with regularly spaced
houses are good example of pattern
• The ordered spatial arrangement of
trees in an orchard is in distinct
contrast to that of forest trees
 TEXTURE
• Refers to arrangement and
frequency of tonal variation in
particular areas of image
• Determines the overall visual
smoothness or coarseness of image
features
• As scale of an image is reduced ,the
texture of any given object or area
becomes progressively finer and
ultimately disappears
 TEXTURE

• Rough texture would consist

of a mottled tone where the
gray levels change abruptly in
a small area such as forested
or woodland areas
• Smooth texture would have
very little tonal variations,
are most often the result in
uniform, even surfaces such
as fields, asphalt or
grasslands
 TONE
• Refers to relative brightness or color of
the objects in an image

• Fundamental element for

distinguishing different features

• Variations in tone allows the elements

of shape ,texture and pattern of
objects to be distinguished

• Pattern of light and dark tone soils is

an indicator of its condition such as
light tone areas may be higher and
drier and darker one lower and moist
COMPAROSON OF TONAL CHANGES OVER A PERIOD OF TIME OVER
THE SAME AREA
 SHADOW

–It provides an idea of the profile

and relative height of a target
which may make the
identification easier

–Shadow can reduce or eliminate

interpretation in their areas of
influence since targets within
shadow are less discernible from
their surroundings
 SHADOW

• Shadow caused by various tree species or cultural

features like silos towers can definitely aid in
interpretation
 SITE

• Site refers to topographic and geographic location

of the objects of study

• Certain type of vegetation or tree can only occur

in certain geographic area not every where

• A large building near a converging network of

railroads should be railway station, not a hospital
 ASSOCIATON

• Relationship between other

recognizable objects or features
in the proximity of the target of
interest
• Identification of features that one
would expect to associate with
other features may provide
information to facilitate
identification
 ASSOCIATON

• Commercial properties may be

associated with proximity of
major transportation routes
,whereas residential areas with
schools, playgrounds
• In image ,lake is associated with
boats, and adjacent recreational
area
 RESOLUTION

• It depends upon many factors but always plays an important

role for identification
• Some object are too small or have too little contrast with
their surroundings to be clearly seen on the image
 STRATEGIES
• Image interpretation process can involve various levels of complexity,

from simple direct recognition of object in the scene to inference of site

conditions

• Direct recognition-identification of highway interchange

• On the other hand, it may be necessary to infer rather than directly

observe the characteristics of features based on their appearance on

images

• In case of fresh buried gas pipeline, the actual pipeline can not be seen

but the changes at ground surface caused by buried pipeline can be visible
 STRATEGIES
• Moist soils ,backfill lose soil, presence of buried obejcts can inferred by
the appearance of above conditions of site

• Knowledge of the crop calendar for an area would determine when

would the crop be visible, particular growing regions ,one crop type may
be covering more areas than other

• In a sense ,image interpretation is the work of a detective trying to put

all pieces of information and evidence together to solve the case

• For interpreter, the mystery might be that why certain area in

agricultural field looks different from the rest of the field
?
 Digital Image Classification
• Digital image classification is the process of assigning
pixels into one of several “land cover classes”, or
"themes".
• By comparing pixels to one another and to pixels of
known identity, it is possible to assemble groups of
similar pixels into classes that are associated with the
informational categories of interest to users of remotely
sensed data
• Pixels within classes are spectrally more similar to one
another than they are to pixels in other classes
Digital Image Classification
 Image Classification Methods

• Supervised Classification

• Unsupervised Classification

• Hybrid Classification
 Un-Supervised Classification
• Use to cluster pixels based on statistics only.

• No user defined training classes required.

• Machine based classification.

• Post classification is of more importance to make results meaningful.

• Incorporate all the natural groups in satellite image (spectral classes).

• Un-supervised Classification have two phases.
–Clustering
–Post Classification
 Supervised Classification
• Supervised classification procedures require
considerable interaction with the analyst, who must
guide the classification by identifying areas on the
image that are known to belong to each category

• Known pixels are used to classify the unknown pixels

Stages of Supervised Classification
• There are three basic steps involved in a typical
supervised classification procedure:

– Training stage

– Classification stage

– Output stage
 Scatter Plot
• A scatter plot or scatter graph is a type of
mathematical diagram using Cartesian coordinates to
display values for two variables for a set of data

• The two-dimensional DN values of each pixel may be

expressed graphically by plotting them on a scatter
diagram (or scatter plot)
Scatter Plot
 Training Stage
• In training stage we select the training data or training
areas

• Pixels or groups of pixels corresponding to known

cover types are called training data or training areas.

• That are used to “train” the classification process to

recognize other, similar, pixels.
Classification Stage
• There are three classifier.

– Minimum Distance to Mean Classifier

– Parallelepiped Classifier

– Maximum Likelihood Classifier

Minimum-Distance-to-Means Classifier
Parallelepiped Classifier
Parallelepiped Classifier
Maximum Likelihood Classifier
 Output Stage
• In output stage, we define the level of classification.

• Create final classes.

• Accuracy Assessment

• Area estimation
THANK YOU

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