Phase-based road detection in multi-source images

The problem of robust automatic road detection in remotely sensed images is complicated by the fact that the sensor, spatial resolution, acquisition conditions, road width, road orientation and road material composition can all vary. A novel technique for detecting road pixels in multi-source remotely sensed images based on the phase (i.e., orientation or directional) information in edge pixels is described. A very dense map of edges extracted from the image is separated into channels, each containing edge pixels whose phases lie within a different range of orientations. The edge map associated with each channel is de-cluttered. A map of road pixels is formed by re-combining the de-cluttered channels into a composite edge image which is itself then separately de-cluttered. Road detection results are provided for DigitalGlobe and TerraServerUSA images. Road representations Suitable for various applications are then discussed.