LiteDenseNet: A Lightweight Network for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Hyperspectral Image (HSI) classification based on deep learning has been an attractive area in recent years. However, as a kind of data-driven algorithm, deep learning method usually requires numerous computational resources and high-quality labelled dataset, while the cost of high-performance computing and data annotation is expensive. In this paper, to reduce dependence on massive calculation and labelled samples, we propose a lightweight network architecture (LiteDenseNet) based on DenseNet for Hyperspectral Image Classification. Inspired by GoogLeNet and PeleeNet, we design a 3D two-way dense layer to capture the local and global features of the input. As convolution is a computationally intensive operation, we introduce group convolution to decrease calculation cost and parameter size further. Thus, the number of parameters and the consumptions of calculation are observably less than contrapositive deep learning methods, which means LiteDenseNet owns simpler architecture and higher efficiency. A series of quantitative experiences on 6 widely used hyperspectral datasets show that the proposed LiteDenseNet obtains the state-of-the-art performance, even though when the absence of labelled samples is severe.