eCognition Understanding Images
Technology Concept
TheTechnology Behind eCognition®
The technological principle underlying eCognition is that it is context-based. The technology identifies objects rather than just examining individual pixels. It then makes inferences about those objects by looking at them in context.
eCognition makes a radical departure from conventional approaches to image analysis due to it's ability to emulate the human mind's cognitive powers. Using patented segmentation and classification processes, we have developed a robust method of rendering knowledge in a semantic network. The technology examines pixels not in isolation, but in context. It builds up a picture iteratively, recognizing groups of pixels as objects. Just like the human mind, it uses the color, shape, texture and size of objects as well as their context and relationships to draw the same conclusions and inferences that an experienced analyst would draw.
Though somewhat simplified, the following example illustrates the basic principles:
With the addition of a knife and fork, the circle is immediately classified as a plate. The object the circle hasn't changed, but the human mind uses context and relationships with other objects to make intelligent inferences about the objects it perceives. And this is precisely how eCognition works.
Cognition Networks
eCognition classifies and analyzes imagery using all the semantic information required to interpret it correctly. Rather than examining individual pixels in isolation, it distills meaning from the objects' connotations and mutual relations.
Of course, it also recognizes pixel information. However, it adds significant value to this information by creating a powerful cognition network in a series of iterative segmentation and classification steps. This dramatically enhances the value of intelligence and information extracted from the image. What's more, the extracted information is fully quantified and qualified to meet the user's specific demands.
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