PFS3F: Probabilistic Fusion of Superpixel-Wise and Semantic-Aware Structural Features for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Processing high-dimensional data cubes and developing high-performance classifiers are core objectives in the field of hyperspectral image classification (HSIC). Superpixel-based methods are widely used in HSIC due to their efficacy in reducing redundant information and enhancing local features. However, imprecise segmentation, especially in complex structures and textures of hyperspectral images (HSIs), may lead to inconsistencies in the regions extracted by superpixels and the boundaries between different ground objects. Such inconsistencies significantly degrade the classification performance of HSIs. Alternatively, when parameter settings are inaccurate, edge-aware feature extraction methods often introduce sharpening artifacts at the image boundaries, resulting in a decrease in classification accuracy. To effectively address these challenges, we propose a novel probabilistic fusion method for HSIC. This method consists of the following stages. First, spatial information is extracted by a multiscale superpixel segmentation method and then probabilistically optimized by the extended random walk (ERW) method. Next, semantic-aware structural features (S2Fs) are extracted along with edge information of different objects. Lastly, a probabilistic framework is proposed to fuse the class probabilities of superpixel-based spatial information and semantic-aware structural features. Experimental results on three real datasets show state-of-the-art classification performance, even with limited training sets.