Unsupervised segmentation of high-resolution remote sensing images based on classical models of the visual receptive field

Here, we describe an unsupervised segmentation method incorporating log-Gabor (LG) filters and a Markov random field (MRF) model for high-resolution (HR) remote sensing (RS) images, based on classical models of the visual receptive field. LG filters were utilised to model the receptive fields of the simple cells in the primary visual cortex and extract detailed features from HR–RS images followed by construction of image pyramid through wavelet decomposition to simulate the hierarchical structure of the visual sensing system. Finally, based on the original HR–RS images, their detailed features and the image pyramid, the MRF image segmentation model was applied to obtain the final segmentation result. Real HR–RS images were used as experimental data to validate the proposed method, both qualitatively (visually) and numerically (with the overall accuracy and Kappa index).The experimental results indicate that the proposed method is effective, feasible and robust to noise.