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Image and signal processing for remote sensing. Conference

Remote sensing classification using quantum image processing

Hrithik Kumar, Teymoor Ali, Chris J. Holder, Andrew Stephen McGough, Deepayan Bhowmik

Published Nov 20, 2024• 4 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Acceleration of image segmentation using deep learning methods on satellite imagery has become ubiquitous in various applications areas such as land cover classification, disaster monitoring and vegetation detection. However, the increase in satellite image resolution and large data volume required for remote sensing applications has resulted in a substantial increase in computational resource usage and demand for real-time processing. This paper investigates quantum computing as a novel approach to meet these computational demands, exploiting its parallel processing strengths. We evaluate hybrid quantum models (COQCNN, MQCNN, FQCNN) against classical CNN and U-Net architectures in remote sensing classification. Although COQCNN and MQCNN underperformed, FQCNN reached 53.26% accuracy, outperforming the classical CNN by 8%. Despite quicker convergence, quantum models struggle with complex feature segmentation, a task where U-Net excels. This study highlights quantum convolutions as a potential path to enhance convergence while addressing challenges like noise from multiple quantum channels affecting accuracy.

DOI
10.1117/12.3034036

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Acceleration of image segmentation using deep learning methods on satellite imagery has become ubiquitous in various applications areas such as land cover classification, disaster monitoring and vegetation detection. However, the increase in satellite image resolution and large data volume required for remote sensing applications has resulted in a substantial increase in computational resource usage and demand for real-time processing. This paper investigates quantum computing as a novel approach to meet these computational demands, exploiting its parallel processing strengths. We evaluate hybrid quantum models (COQCNN, MQCNN, FQCNN) against classical CNN and U-Net architectures in remote sensing classification. Although COQCNN and MQCNN underperformed, FQCNN reached 53.26% accuracy, outperforming the classical CNN by 8%. Despite quicker convergence, quantum models struggle with complex feature segmentation, a task where U-Net excels. This study highlights quantum convolutions as a potential path to enhance convergence while addressing challenges like noise from multiple quantum channels affecting accuracy.
Remote sensing imagery classification remains a formidable challenge, primarily attributed to the high dimensionality and complexity inherent in the data. While deep learning has demonstrated efficacy in this domain, its computational demands and reliance on extensive training data pose significant hurdles. This research investigates how quantum computing could be able to overcome these constraints and improve deep learning’s capacity for classifying remote sensing data. The study provides an extensive review of recent developments in quantum deep learning techniques specifically tailored for remote sensing applications. Various quantum algorithms designed for image feature extraction and classification are discussed, shedding light on their potential to revolutionize the field. As a practical demonstration, the chapter presents a case study focused on leveraging quantum deep learning for land cover classification using Sentinel-2 imagery. This chapter’s main focus is on hybrid quantum convolutional neural networks (QCNNs) based on circuits as effective tools for remote sensing picture classification. These hybrid models integrate quantum layers within traditional neural networks, introducing a novel paradigm for image analysis. To evaluate the efficacy of this approach, the proposed QCNN architecture is applied to land-use and land-cover classification, employing the Euro SAT dataset as a benchmark.
Remote sensing image classification is crucial for understanding land cover and monitoring environmental changes. Traditional machine learning methods are limited in efficiently processing high-resolution remote sensing data, while quantum machine learning (QML) has the potential for parallel computing and exponential acceleration. However, the noise and limited qubits of quantum hardware in the noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era limit the application of QML. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a Cut Hybrid Quantum-Classical Neural Network (CHQC-Net), which combines the classical ResNet-18 and the Matrix Product State (MPS)-based Quantum Neural Network (QNN). By employing a bit cutting method, large quantum circuits are decomposed into smaller subcircuits, reducing the required number of qubits and simplifying circuit implementation. Experiments on the EuroSAT dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of this method, highlighting the potential of quantum computing in remote sensing image classification.
Remote sensing image classification is a fundamental task for Earth observation and environmental monitoring. However, conventional convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are limited by computational capacity and struggle to efficiently process the rapidly growing volume of remote sensing data. To address this limitation, we propose HAQCCN (Hybrid Asymmetric Quantum–Classical Convolutional Network), a novel hybrid architecture that integrates quantum computation into the classical convolutional framework through asymmetric quantum convolutional circuits. In HAQCCN, the asymmetric quantum circuits enable a limited number of qubits to process more classical data while maintaining excellent feature extraction capability. Experiments conducted on the IBM Qiskit platform using the Overhead-MNIST, PatternNet, and RSI-CB256 datasets demonstrate that HAQCCN outperforms conventional CNNs and existing quantum models. Furthermore, we systematically investigate the effects of encoding schemes, the number of quantum convolutional kernels, and the number of qubits on model performance, confirming the effectiveness and scalability of the proposed method for remote sensing image classification.
Exploiting machine learning techniques to automatically classify multispectral remote sensing imagery plays a significant role in deriving changes on the Earth’s surface. However, the computation power required to manage large Earth observation data and apply sophisticated machine learning models for this analysis purpose has become an intractable bottleneck. Leveraging quantum computing provides a possibility to tackle this challenge in the future. This article focuses on land cover classification by analyzing Sentinel-2 images with quantum computing. Two hybrid quantum-classical deep learning frameworks are proposed. Both models exploit quantum computing to extract features efficiently from multispectral images and classical computing for final classification. As proof of concept, numerical simulation results on the LCZ42 dataset through the TensorFlow Quantum platform verify our models' validity. The experiments indicate that our models can extract features more effectively compared with their classical counterparts, specifically, the convolutional neural network (CNN) model. Our models demonstrated improvements, with an average test accuracy increase of 4.5% and 3.3%, respectively, in comparison to the CNN model. In addition, our proposed models exhibit better transferability and robustness than CNN models.
Image classification plays an important role in remote sensing. Earth observation (EO) has inevitably arrived in the big data era, but the high requirement on computation power has already become a bottleneck for analyzing large amounts of remote sensing data with sophisticated machine learning models. Exploiting quantum computing might contribute to a solution to tackle this challenge by leveraging quantum properties. This article introduces a hybrid quantum-classical convolutional neural network (QC-CNN) that applies quantum computing to effectively extract high-level critical features from EO data for classification purposes. Besides that, the adoption of the amplitude encoding technique reduces the required quantum bit resources. The complexity analysis indicates that the proposed model can accelerate the convolutional operation in comparison with its classical counterpart. The model's performance is evaluated with different EO benchmarks, including Overhead-MNIST, So2Sat LCZ42, PatternNet, RSI-CB256, and NaSC-TG2, through the TensorFlow Quantum platform, and it can achieve better performance than its classical counterpart and have higher generalizability, which verifies the validity of the QC-CNN model on EO data classification tasks.
Urban land cover classification aims to derive crucial information from earth observation data and categorize it into specific land uses. To achieve accurate classification, sophisticated machine learning models trained with large earth observation data are employed, but the required computation power has become a bottleneck. Quantum computing might tackle this challenge in the future. However, representing images into quantum states for analysis with quantum computing is challenging due to the high demand for quantum resources. To tackle this challenge, we propose a hybrid quantum neural network that can effectively represent and classify remote sensing imagery with reduced quantum resources. Our model was evaluated on the Local Climate Zone (LCZ)-based land cover classification task using the TensorFlow Quantum platform, and the experimental results indicate its validity for accurate urban land cover classification.