A Novel Airport Detection Method via Line Segment Classification and Texture Classification

Airports are one of the most important traffic facilities; thus, airport detection is of great significance in economic and military construction. This letter proposes a novel method for airport detection, with the entire algorithm based on line segment classification and texture classification. First, a fast line segment detector is applied to extract the line segments in images and compute the features of these line segments. Then, the line segments are discriminated by a trained runway line classifier, and the regions of interest (ROIs) are extracted from the line segments, which are classified as runway lines. Finally, whether the ROI is actually an airport is determined by analyzing the classification results of the image blocks. This method is unique in terms of the computing of line segment features and line segment classification. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.