Modified versions of SLIC algorithm for generating superpixels in hyperspectral images

This paper aims at assessing the performance of the Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SLIC) superpixel generating algorithm on hyperspectral images. Two modified versions of SLIC algorithm have been proposed. In the first, the HyperSLIC version, modifications were made to the basic algorithm in order to work with higher dimensions. In the second, the FD-SLIC version, a more complex distance measure, the fractional distance, already successfully used in the unmixing procedure was introduced. HyperSLIC was also applied on the abundance maps that are produced by the endmembers of the hyperspectral image. Algorithms have been applied on two images. Evaluation was based on visual inspection, NSE metric and “danger” maps. It has been shown that whole hyperspectral volume and fractional distance metric improves SLIC performance.