The Segment Anything Model (SAM) for Remote Sensing Applications: From Zero to One Shot

Segmentation is an essential step for remote sensing image processing. This study aims to advance the application of the Segment Anything Model (SAM), an innovative image segmentation model by Meta AI, in the field of remote sensing image analysis. SAM is known for its exceptional generalization capabilities and zero-shot learning, making it a promising approach to processing aerial and orbital images from diverse geographical contexts. Our exploration involved testing SAM across multi-scale datasets using various input prompts, such as bounding boxes, individual points, and text descriptors. To enhance the model's performance, we implemented a novel automated technique that combines a text-prompt-derived general example with one-shot training. This adjustment resulted in an improvement in accuracy, underscoring SAM's potential for deployment in remote sensing imagery and reducing the need for manual annotation. Despite the limitations encountered with lower spatial resolution images, SAM exhibits promising adaptability to remote sensing data analysis. We recommend future research to enhance the model's proficiency through integration with supplementary fine-tuning techniques and other networks. Furthermore, we provide the open-source code of our modifications on online repositories, encouraging further and broader adaptations of SAM to the remote sensing domain.

The Potential of Visual ChatGPT For Remote Sensing

Recent advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP), particularly in Large Language Models (LLMs), associated with deep learning-based computer vision techniques, have shown substantial potential for automating a variety of tasks. One notable model is Visual ChatGPT, which combines ChatGPT's LLM capabilities with visual computation to enable effective image analysis. The model's ability to process images based on textual inputs can revolutionize diverse fields. However, its application in the remote sensing domain remains unexplored. This is the first paper to examine the potential of Visual ChatGPT, a cutting-edge LLM founded on the GPT architecture, to tackle the aspects of image processing related to the remote sensing domain. Among its current capabilities, Visual ChatGPT can generate textual descriptions of images, perform canny edge and straight line detection, and conduct image segmentation. These offer valuable insights into image content and facilitate the interpretation and extraction of information. By exploring the applicability of these techniques within publicly available datasets of satellite images, we demonstrate the current model's limitations in dealing with remote sensing images, highlighting its challenges and future prospects. Although still in early development, we believe that the combination of LLMs and visual models holds a significant potential to transform remote sensing image processing, creating accessible and practical application opportunities in the field.