ERDAS IMAGINE® Grouping Tool

♦ Description
Originally developed to help generate the strata for the Frame Sampling Tools, the
Grouping Tool can benefit any user who is attempting to assign land-use class values to
unsupervised classification results (or any other type of image segmentation or clustering
result).

When an unsupervised classification approach is used for interpretation of satellite imagery,

the categorization software reduces the raw data to a large number of clusters, based on
spectral information. These clusters have no meaning until the user assigns them to one of
the final target classes, in a process called class grouping or labeling. An often-used
approach to image classification is to produce a categorization with a much larger number
of clusters than are targeted in the final classification. This enables the user to refine the
classification by assigning each cluster to a target land use class. The purpose of the
Grouping Tool is to provide software support to facilitate this process.

This tool incorporates automatic highlighting, improved class selection facilities, named
groups and target classes, conflict detection, and a suite of Boolean tools to improve the
labeling process. It supports two powerful cluster selection tools, the Dendrogram Tool and
the Ancillary Data Tool.

The Class Grouping Tool has a stand-alone interface which drives a standard IMAGINE
Viewer. This arrangement allows all the features of the standard viewer, such as linking
with external viewers, to be used in conjunction with the features of the grouping tool. The
grouping tool interface is shown in the figure below, on the right.

T
¾ Dendrogram Classes that are spectrally similar to each other will frequently form tight spatial clusters
Tool when highlighted together in the Class Grouping Tool. The Dendrogram Tool provides a
way of using spectral proximity to select classes within the Class Grouping Tool, where
their spatial relationship is readily viewable. This can be a powerful aid in making
inferences about which classes should be grouped together.

¾ Ancillary Ancillary data, such as ground truth data or a previous classification of the same area, can
Data Tool be very useful when labeling an unsupervised classification. The Ancillary Data Tool uses
this ancillary information to provide the Class Grouping Tool with an on-the fly assessment
measurement that computes the accuracy ranges for each final output Class Group as it is
being built.

Leica Geosystems
GIS & Mapping, LLC
TM
2801 Buford Highway
Atlanta, Georgia 30329, USA
Information subject to change without notice. Phone: +1 404 248 9000
Fax: +1 404 248 9909
Copyright © 2005 Leica Geosystems GIS & Mapping, LLC. All rights reserved. Brand and product names are the properties
of their respective owners. Part No. IMAGINE Grouping Tool cc 04/05.
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