Introductory view of anomalous change detection in hyperspectral images within a theoretical Gaussian framework

Exploitation of temporal series of hyperspectral images is a relatively new discipline that has gained a lot of attention from the image processing scientific community. In this paper, we consider the specific problem of anomalous change detection (ACD) in hyperspectral images and discuss how images taken at two different times can be processed to detect changes caused by insertion, deletion, or displacement of small objects in the monitored scene. We introduce the ACD problem using an approach based on the statistical decision theory and we derive a common framework including different ACD approaches. Far from being inclusive of all the methods proposed in the literature, this tutorial overview places emphasis on techniques based on the multivariate Gaussian model that allows a formal presentation of the ACD problem and the rigorous derivation of the possible solutions in a way that is both mathematically more tractable and easier to interpret. The unification of different approaches under a single rigorous statistical scheme provides both a tutorial overview of ACD techniques, and a useful instrument for researchers already familiar with the ACD problem. Dedicated preprocessing methods aimed at improving the robustness of the ACD process are also discussed. Real data are exploited to test and compare the presented methods, highlighting advantages and drawbacks of each approach. The tutorial aspect of the paper has suggested the use of a freely available data set. This should hopefully motivate the interested reader to experiment with the processing methods and performance evaluation chain presented herein.