Alexandria Engineering Journal (2019) xxx, xxx–xxx

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Alexandria University

Alexandria Engineering Journal

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Studying the effect of lossy compression and image

fusion on image classification
Mohamed Elkholy, Mohamed M. Hosny *, Hossam M. Farid El-Habrouk

Transportation Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Received 23 August 2017; revised 7 November 2017; accepted 19 December 2018

KEYWORDS Abstract Nowadays, the remotely sensed images are of huge sizes that require the implementation
Lossy compression; of compression technique to be easily stored on the internet. In addition, image fusion which is the
MrSid; merging of panchromatic and multispectral images to generate a single image with high spatial and
Overall accuracy; spectral resolutions is required to increase the information in the resulted image. The purpose of this
HPF; paper is to study the effect of image compression and fusion techniques on the classification accu-
RMSE racy. In this study, two pan and mul Geo-eye images covering an area of Cape Town, South Africa
were registered and fused using different fusion techniques. The fused image with the superior accu-
racy was then compressed with various compression ratios ranging from 1:10 to 1:100. Then, the
compressed fused images were classified using Maximum Likelihood Classification and Artificial
Neural Network Classification techniques. Finally, the confusion matrices of the classified images
were generated and evaluated to determine the effect of compression and fusion techniques on
the accuracy of the classification process.
Ó 2018 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an
open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction Image fusion is widely used to integrate a panchromatic

image which contains the spatial information (the sharp details
One of the most important application in remote sensing is the and clear edges of each feature) and multispectral image which
image classification which aims to label each pixel in the image contains the spectral information (the correct color for each
to a certain class. Two main categories of classification were feature) for full exploitation of the information in both images.
applied in this research; the supervised classification (Maxi- Actually, several image fusion techniques were applied to
mum Likelihood Classification, MLC) and the unsupervised merge the pan and mul Geo-eye images producing a high spa-
classification (Artificial Neural Networks, AANs). tial resolution multispectral image (a fused image). These
Before classifying the images, they undergo two major image fusion techniques are: Intensity Hue Saturation (IHS),
steps. The first is image fusion and the second is image Fast Intensity Hue Saturation with spectral adjustment
compression. (FIHS), Fast Intensity Hue Saturation with spectral adjust-
ment area weighting coefficient, Principal Component Analysis
* Corresponding author.
(PCA), High Pass Filter (HPF), Gram Schmidt, Hyperspheri-
cal Color Space (HCS), Brovey Transform (BT), Wavelet
E-mail address: mohamed_elkholy@alexu.edu.eg (M. Elkholy).
+ IHS, and Wavelet + PCA.
Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria
University.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2018.12.013
1110-0168 Ó 2018 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Please cite this article in press as: M. Elkholy et al., Studying the effect of lossy compression and image fusion on image classification, Alexandria Eng. J. (2019),
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2018.12.013
2 M. Elkholy et al.
As the high pass filter fusion technique provided a fused
image with the highest spatial and spectral accuracies with
respect to the other fusion techniques, it has been adopted in
this research for the second step which is image compression.
The second major step is the image compression which aims
to reduce the size of the fused image. In this study, the Discrete
Wavelet Transformation (MrSid format) was applied to com-
press the fused image with different ratios ranging from 1:10 to
1:100.
Afterwards the compressed fused image (10 images) were
classified using both the classification technique; MLC and
ANNs. PCI digital image processing software from Geomatica
Canada, and Erdas imagines packages were used to aid in per-
forming different processing steps of this research. Finally, the
10 classified images were evaluated by producing the error
(confusion) matrix for each of them and the overall accuracy
of the classification process was considered to determine the
effect of the image fusion and compression techniques on the
classification accuracy. However the following subsections
described in details the study area and the flow of the process-
ing steps.
2. Study area
Two pan and mul Geo-eye images were used. The pan image is
14,464 pixels
14,532 pixels with a pixel size of 0.50 m and the
mul image is 3616 pixels
3633 pixels with a pixel size of
2.0 m and 4 spectral bands (Red, Green, Blue, and Nir). As
shown in Fig. 1. The pan and mul Geo-eye images cover the
same area of Cape Town, South Africa.
3. Image fusion: high pass filter (HPF)
A high-pass filter (HPF), an electronic filter, passes high-
frequency signals, but decreases the amplitude of signals with
frequencies lower than the cutoff frequency. The actual quan-
tity of attenuation for each frequency varies from one filter to
another. A high-pass filter is usually represented as a linear
time-invariant system [1].
At first, the ratio between the panchromatic high spatial
resolution image and the multispectral image is computed
Fig. 1 Illustrates the original images (a) multispectral image, and (b) panchromatic image.
Please cite this article in press as: M. Elkholy et al., Studying the effect of lossy compression and image fusion on image classification, Alexandria Eng. J. (2019),
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2018.12.013
[2]. A high pass convolution filter kernel is formed and used,
based on the computed ratio, to filter the panchromatic high
spatial resolution input data. The HPF image is then supple-
mented to each band of the multispectral image. After the
HPF image is weighed relative to the global standard deviation
of the multispectral bands with the weight issues again com-
puted from the ratio, the summation is done [3]. In the final
step, a linear stretch is done to the new multispectral image
to identify the standard deviation and the mean values of the
original input multispectral image. It shows the good and
acceptable results also for multi temporal and multi sensorial
data. The edges are sometimes stressed too much. Fig. 2 shows
a part of the HPF fused image.
4. Image compression: image compression based on discrete
wavelet transformation (MrSid format)
Image compression has recently become more significant in the
remote sensing field because of the availability of high-
resolution and hyper-spectral satellite imagery, and the
panchromatic image and the multispectral image that need
large space to be saved on the internet [4]. The Spatial Data
Infrastructures (SDI) paradigm has been improved over the
years, which greatly improves the establishment of web data
services, usually in terms of Open Geospatial Consortium
(OGC) standards like the Web Map Service (WMS) and the
Web Coverage Service (WCS). Nevertheless, it is still necessary
to do interactive transmission strategies and compression for
the images in these web services, in order to facilitate the stor-
age and transfer of very large images of environments with
restricted bandwidth [5].
There are two broad types of image compression methods
(lossy and lossless compression). Lossy and lossless compres-
sion methods are terms that illustrate whether, or not, the orig-
inal image can lose any data whenever the compressed one is
decompressed [6].
Lossless compression can be performed in different ways,
through which the original data can be kept without any loss.
When the compressed image is decompressed, it matches the
original image numerically, and is therefore favored in practi-
cal critical situation, such as the archival of business docu-
Studying the effect of lossy compression and image fusion
Fig. 2 Illustrates a part of the HPF fused image.
ments or medical image, etc. where losing date in the image
and quality could cause incorrect analysis which may have a
sever adverse influence [7]. However, there must be some
redundancy in the original data for this type of compression
to be efficient.
The other type of image compression is lossy compression.
It works on minimizing the image size by permanently elimi-
nating certain information, especially redundant information.
After decompressing the image, only a part of the original
information is still there. This type of compression is chosen
in different applications where high compression ratios are
needed for smaller image sizes; however the spatial and spec-
tral features of the image are lost. Even though in some cases
the visual impact of a lossy technique may be imperceptible
[8,9].
Multiresolution Seamless Image Database (MrSID),
designed by LizardTech, is a compression algorithm based
on wavelet transformation. The improvements in MrSID
include a memory effective implementation and an automatic
inclusion of pyramid layers in every data set; both of which
make MrSID a very suitable technique to give an effective
retrieval of very large digital images with effective storage.
The methodology of the underlying wavelet-based compres-
sion used in MrSID yields high compression ratios, while sat-
isfying stringent image quality requirements. The compression
method used in MrSID is a lossy compression one where the
process of compression and decompression loses some of the
source data pixel-for-pixel. The compression methods used
by MrSID technology give both high performance and high
quality imagery, while still meeting our industry’s challenging
workflows [10,11]. Fig. 3 show three compressed HPF images
with three different ratios 1:10, 1:50, and 1:100 respectively.
5. Image classification
Image classification is to categorize the images into different
classes by applying different methods to make use of that in
Please cite this article in press as: M. Elkholy et al., Studying the effect of lossy compression and image fusion on image classification, Alexandria Eng. J. (2019),
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3
different fields like making maps and agriculture fields through
collecting spatial data. There are two different techniques for
classification used in this research. The first one is called the
unsupervised classification in which the image is divided into
different categories by the software and the user just determi-
nes the number of categories in the image. The second method
and the most used is the supervised classification technique. It
is based on the user to determine the image categories. This
research adopts the maximum likelihood supervised classifica-
tion method and the neural network supervised classification
method.
5.1. Maximum likelihood method
Maximum likelihood classification is one of the most common
supervised classification techniques used with remote sensing
image data, and was the first rigorous algorithm to be
employed widely. It has been developed based on a statistically
acceptable manner, although its traditional approach was suf-
ficient for most remote sensing purposes.
This classifier considers both the variance and covariance of
the category spectral response patterns when classifying an
unknown pixel. To do this, an assumption is made that the dis-
tribution of a class sample is Gaussian (normally distributed).
This assumption of normality is generally reasonable for com-
mon spectral response distribution. According to this assump-
tion, the distribution of a class sample is normal; a class can be
characterized by the mean vector and the covariance matrix.
Given these two characteristics for each pixel value, the sta-
tistical probability is computed for each class to determine the
land cover class to which the pixel belongs [12].
5.2. Artificial neural networks
Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are computer programs
designed to simulate human learning processes through estab-
lishment and reinforcement of linkages between input data and
4 M. Elkholy et al.

Fig. 3 Illustrates three compressed fused images with compression ratio 1:10, 1:50, and 1:100.

output data. They are linkages or pathways that from the anal-
ogy with the human learning process in the repeated associa-
tions between input and output in the training process
reinforcement linkages that can then be employed to link input
and output, in the absence of training data [9].
ANNs are models free from any assumptions, particularly
about the frequency distribution of the training data. ANN
approaches have a distinct advantage over statistical classifica-
tion methods in that they are non-parametric and require little
prior knowledge of the input data distribution. In addition to

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Studying the effect of lossy compression and image fusion 5

this previous advantage, the neural networks attempt to find
the best nonlinear function based on the network’s complexity
without the constraint of linearity or pre-specified
nonlinearity.
6. Evaluating methods
6.1. Evaluation of the compressed images
Evaluating the compressed images depends on the verification
of the preservation of spectral characteristics and the spatial
resolution by computing the RMSE for each compressed
image. The RMSE is calculated as the difference between the
mean and the standard deviation of the fused image and the
original one. The best value is to be equal zero. The following
equation shows how to calculate the RMSE:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
 2 
RMSE ¼ stdi  stdf þ meani  meanf
6.2. Accuracy assessment
The accuracy assessment is expressed by the error matrix
which could be got by comparing between pixels in the ground
reference data and the classified image [13]. The overall accu-
racy could be calculated in different methods. The overall
accuracy of the classified image illustrates to what extent the
classified pixel is similar to the actual land cover conditions
obtained from its corresponding ground true data. Producer’s
accuracy means how well the land cover could be classified and
it measures the omission errors. User’s accuracy illustrates the
comparison between the supervised classified pixel and its cor-
responding data in the real-world location [14].
7. Results and analysis
a. The fused image from the decompressed raw pan and
mul images were compared with the 10 fused images
from the compressed pan and mul images of the differ-
ent compression ratios to get the RMSE so as to study
2
the effect of compression on image fusion, as shown in
ð1Þ Table1.
From Fig. 4, it is obvious that compression ratio 1:10 gives
the least RMSE as the RMSE equals 0.339 and the RMSE
increases as the compression ratio increases from 1:20 to
1:100. The compression ratio 1:100 gives the highest RMSE.

Table 1 Illustrates the RMSE for the fused image from the raw images and the 10 fused images from the compressed images.
Compression ratio ‘‘1:10” ‘‘1:20” ‘‘1:30” ‘‘1:40” ‘‘1:50”
RMSE 0.339054 1.220939 2.517272 3.247004 4.847105
Compression ratio ‘‘1:60” ‘‘1:70” ‘‘1:80” ‘‘1:90” ‘‘1:100”
RMSE 5.286009 6.847213 7.26097 7.954781 8.019851

RMSE
9
8
7
6
5
4
3 RMSE
2
1
0

Fig. 4 Illustrates the RMSE for the fused image from the raw images and the 10 fused images from the compressed images.

Table 2 The overall accuracy of the 10 decompressed images by maximum likelihood classification method.
Compression ratio ‘‘1:10” ‘‘1:20” ‘‘1:30” ‘‘1:40” ‘‘1:50”
Overall accuracy 54.667 50.667 46.667 54.00 45.33
Compression ratio ‘‘1:60” ‘‘1:70” ‘‘1:80” ‘‘1:90” ‘‘1:100”
Overall accuracy 56.66 46.66 50.66 51.33 37.33

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6 M. Elkholy et al.

Table 3 The overall accuracy of the 10 decompressed images by neural network classification method.
Compression ratio ‘‘1:10” ‘‘1:20” ‘‘1:30” ‘‘1:40” ‘‘1:50”
Overall accuracy 41.245 57.871 42.802 40.612 48.903
Compression ratio ‘‘1:60‘‘ ‘‘1:70” ‘‘1:80” ‘‘1:90” ‘‘1:100”
Overall accuracy 48.50 50.33 48.98 46.83 41.57

70

60

50
Overall accuracy

40

30
maximum likelihood
20 neural network
raw HPF image
10

0
"1:10" "1:20" "1:30" "1:40" "1:50" "1:60" "1:70" "1:80" "1:90" "1:100"
Compression ratio

Fig. 5 Overall accuracy for the 10 decompressed images by maximum likelihood and neural network classification methods.

b. After compressing and decompressing the high pass fil-
ter fused image, we classified the 10 decompressed
images by two methods, maximum likelihood classifica-
tion method and neural network classification method.
The overall accuracy was calculated for each decom-
pressed image and compared with the overall accuracy
of the original high pass filter fused image, as shown
in Tables 2 and 3; Fig. 5 also show the overall accuracy
for the 10 decompressed images, while the overall accu-
racy for the high pass filter fused image equals 50.667%.
It is found that the compression ratio 1:100 gives the least
overall accuracy and the compression ration 1:10 and 1:20 give
the best overall accuracy, while the other compression rations
give overall accuracies near to each other.
8. Conclusion
– Image compression:
The results show that the compression ratio 1:10 is the
best and the perfect ratio that has a little effect on image
fusion as it gives the lowest RMSE, equals 0.339, while
the other compression ratios (1:20, 1:30, . . . 1:100) give
higher RMSE as it increases by increasing the compres-
sion ratios from 1:20 to 1:100 which gives the highest
RMSE and the compression ratio 1:100 has the worst
effect on the image fusion.
– Image classification:
 From the previous results, it is found that the maximum
likelihood classification method is better than the neural
network classification method because it gives overall
accuracy better than the raw HPF image’s accuracy at
different compression ratios.
 Maximum likelihood classification method gives overall
accuracy higher than the accuracy of the HPF fused i-
mage at compression ratios: 1:10, 1:40, and 1:60.
 The overall accuracy for the raw HPF image and maxi-
mum likelihood classification method are equal at com-
pression ratio 1:90.
 While the neural network classification method gives
better overall accuracy only at compression ratio 1:20.
 The previous chart illustrates that to get an overall accu-
racy 57.78% the best classification method is neural n-
etwork and the best compression ratio is 1:20 or the
maximum likelihood classification method is acceptable
with a compression ratio 1:60.
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