Multiscale estimation of textural features. Application to the characterization of texture anisotropy

This paper deals with the characterization of textures. It focuses on textural properties based on the local differences of attributes, such as homogeneity and orientation. We introduce the scaled scattering indicator (SSI) in order to estimate such textural properties. SSI is computed at various observation scales to take into account micro-textures as well as macro-textures involved in pictures. We establish the theoretical behavior of SSI in the case of a pavement filled with a given textural pattern. We devote this indicator to the multiscale characterization of the anisotropy of pictures. Simulation results on synthetic and real pictures confirm the the theoretical approach we have provided: SSI provides an accurate estimation of textural properties like anisotropy, but also gives an estimation of the size of the textural patterns involved in the picture