Critical class sensitive active learning method for classification of remote sensing imagery

Remote sensing images provide essential data source for monitoring the land cover and land change on the Earth with a fast revisiting period. To fully utilize the remote sensing data, supervised classification methods are good choices to convert the data to land cover types due to their good abilities. One of the great challenges is to effectively collect training samples, especially for remote sensing images with an area scale or even global scale. One possible solution is using advanced machine learning techniques, e.g., active learning methods, to define training samples effectively and concisely. In this paper, we focus on critical class (i.e., the class which is hard to classify accurately) sensitive active learning methods for remote sensing image classification. The proposed algorithm is based on the widely-used support vector machines classifier. Experimental tests are performed on two public hyperspectral image data sets. Preliminary results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.