1.

Automatic Building Detection in Aerial Images Using a Hierarchical Feature Based Image
Segmentation
This paper introduces a novel automatic building detection method for aerial images. The
proposed method incorporates a hierarchical multilayer feature based image segmentation
technique using color. A number of geometrical/regional attributes are defined to identify
potential regions in multiple layers of segmented images. A tree-based mechanism is utilized to
inspect segmented regions using their spatial relationships with each other and their
regional/geometrical characteristics. This process allows the creation of a set of candidate
regions that are validated as rooftops based on the overlap between existing and predicted
shadows of each region according to the image acquisition information. Experimental results
show an overall shape accuracy and completeness of 96%.
2. Building Detection in Aerial Images Based on Watershed and Visual Attention Feature
Descriptors
This paper investigates a novel solution for the recognition of objects of interest
in aerial images. The solution builds on a combination of algorithms inspired from the human
visual system with classical and modern algorithms. The goal is to achieve intelligent and
powerful approaches that allow for fast and automatic treatment of complex images. The
methodology that is proposed innovatively combines a variation of the classical watershed
segmentation algorithm with a series of feature descriptors derived from a computational model
of visual attention. The feature descriptors are tuned with a machine learning approach for the
task of detecting buildings in aerial images. The experimental evaluation that is conducted
demonstrates that objects recognition with features derived from human visual attention
performs better than when only traditional features, such as statistical texture descriptors and
shape descriptors, are used. As well, the proposed solution obtains better classification rates
than those reported on image processing-based recognition of buildings in the remote sensing
literature.
3. Building detection and city analysis using aerial images
The aerial image is used for a recent city information gathering. A lot of local governments use it
to understand the city space. So the research that extracts the feature from aerial images is
very active. In the efficient analysis of the city space, the information gathering technology that
uses the aerial images is being established. Especially, the application that investigates
the building in the large area is expected. The system that can analyze the statistical information
of the city by the automatic operation is needed. In this research, I propose the technique for
detecting an individual building from the aerial images.
4. An energy minimization approach to building detection in aerial images
An energy function based approach is presented to detect rectangular shapes in images. The
proposed edge-based approach involves extracting straight lines from an edge map of
the image. Then a Markov Random Field (MRF) is built on these lines. The energy function
associated with the MRF can be construed as a measure of the conditional probability of
observing the lines given the rectangular shapes (the positions and number of which are
unknown) in the image and the minimization results in a maximum likelihood estimate. This
approach, supplemented with some qualitative information about shadows and gradients, is

used to detect rectangular buildings in real aerial images. Due to poor quality of the real images,
only partial shapes are extracted in some cases. A modified deformable contour (snakes) based
approach is then presented for completion of the partial shapes.
5. Building detection from aerial images using Hough transform and intensity information
Detection of buildings is a significant branch of the automated aerial image interpretation
problem. Automatic detection of buildings enables construction of maps, detecting changes, and
monitoring urbanization. Due to the complexity and uncontrolled appearance of the scene, an
intelligent fusion of different methods gives better results. To solve this problem different
methods have been proposed but each of them has some shortcomings and as a consequence
does not work properly in all geographical regions. In this paper, a novel semiautomatic
approach for building detection using Hough transform and intensity information is presented.
This method benefits from segmentation of aerial images using great tools. This segmentation
will be able to estimate the centres' location of building in an image independent of geographical
region's properties. Besides, it uses the Hough transform for verifying the appearance
of building in estimated centres. Experimental results show the positive abilities of proposed
method.

6. A Probabilistic Framework to Detect Buildings in Aerial and Satellite Images

Detecting buildings from very high resolution (VHR) aerial and satellite images is extremely
useful in map making, urban planning, and land use analysis. Although it is possible to manually
locate buildings from these VHR images, this operation may not be robust and fast. Therefore,
automated systems to detect buildings from VHR aerial and satellite images are needed.
Unfortunately, such systems must cope with major problems. First, buildings have diverse
characteristics, and their appearance (illumination, viewing angle, etc.) is uncontrolled in
these images. Second, buildings in urban areas are generally dense and complex. It is hard to
detect separate buildings from them. To overcome these difficulties, we propose a
novel building detection method using local feature vectors and a probabilistic framework. We
first introduce four different local feature vector extraction methods. Extracted local feature
vectors serve as observations of the probability density function (pdf) to be estimated. Using a
variable-kernel density estimation method, we estimate the corresponding pdf. In other words,
we represent building locations (to be detected) in the image as joint random variables and
estimate their pdf. Using the modes of the estimated density, as well as other probabilistic
properties, we detect building locations in the image. We also introduce data and decision
fusion methods based on our probabilistic framework to detect building locations. We pick
certain crops of VHR panchromatic aerial and Ikonos satellite images to test our method. We
assume that these crops are detected using our previous urban region detection method. Our
test images are acquired by two different sensors, and they have different spatial resolutions.
Also, buildings in these images have diverse characteristics. Therefore, we can test our
methods on a diverse data set. Extensive tests indicate that our method can be used to
automatically detect buildings in a robust and fast manner in Ikonos - - satellite and our aerial
images.
7. Building Detection in Aerial Images Based on Watershed and Visual Attention Feature
Descriptors

This paper investigates a novel solution for the recognition of objects of interest in aerial
images. The solution builds on a combination of algorithms inspired from the human visual
system with classical and modern algorithms. The goal is to achieve intelligent and powerful
approaches that allow for fast and automatic treatment of complex images. The methodology
that is proposed innovatively combines a variation of the classical watershed segmentation
algorithm with a series of feature descriptors derived from a computational model of visual
attention. The feature descriptors are tuned with a machine learning approach for the task of
detecting buildings in aerial images. The experimental evaluation that is conducted
demonstrates that objects recognition with features derived from human visual attention
performs better than when only traditional features, such as statistical texture descriptors and
shape descriptors, are used. As well, the proposed solution obtains better classification rates
than those reported on image processing based recognition of buildings in the remote sensing
literature.
8. Building recognition from aerial images combining segmentation and shadow
We propose a novel building detection algorithm for processing high-resolution aerial images.
Our algorithm exploits the building-shadow geometric relationship according to lighting models,
making it suitable to detect buildings in a more general setting, possibly with irregular shapes.
We use image segmentation to provide spatial support for both building and shadow detections.
A novel confidence method is developed to label building and shadow segments by jointly
reasoning: 1) the likelihood of shadows; 2) building-shadow configuration, and 3) buildingbuilding similarity. Our method is tested on a wide range of aerial images. Qualitative and
quantitative results demonstrate its effectiveness on detecting and extracting buildings from
background clutter.