Enhancing Semi-Supervised Semantic Segmentation of Remote Sensing Images via Feature Perturbation-Based Consistency Regularization Methods

Abstract

In the field of remote sensing technology, the semantic segmentation of remote sensing images carries substantial importance. The creation of high-quality models for this task calls for an extensive collection of image data. However, the manual annotation of these images can be both time-consuming and labor-intensive. This has catalyzed the advent of semi-supervised semantic segmentation methodologies. Yet, the complexities inherent within the foreground categories of these remote sensing images present challenges in preserving prediction consistency. Moreover, remote sensing images possess more complex features, and different categories are confused within the feature space, making optimization based on the feature space challenging. To enhance model consistency and to optimize feature-based class categorization, this paper introduces a novel semi-supervised semantic segmentation framework based on Mean Teacher (MT). Unlike the conventional Mean Teacher that only introduces perturbations at the image level, we incorporate perturbations at the feature level. Simultaneously, to maintain consistency after feature perturbation, we employ contrastive learning for feature-level learning. In response to the complex feature space of remote sensing images, we utilize entropy threshold to assist contrastive learning, selecting feature key-values more precisely, thereby enhancing the accuracy of segmentation. Extensive experimental results on the ISPRS Potsdam dataset and the challenging iSAID dataset substantiate the superior performance of our proposed methodology.