Hyperspectral Band Selection Using Improved Firefly Algorithm

An improved firefly algorithm (FA)-based band selection method is proposed for hyperspectral dimensionality reduction (DR). In this letter, DR is formulated as an optimization problem that searches a small number of bands from a hyperspectral data set, and a feature subset search algorithm using the FA is developed. To avoid employing an actual classifier within the band searching process to greatly reduce computational cost, criterion functions that can gauge class separability are preferred; specifically, the minimum estimated abundance covariance and Jeffreys-Matusita distances are employed. The proposed band selection technique is compared with an FA-based method that actually employs a classifier, the well-known sequential forward selection, and particle swarm optimization algorithms. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms others, providing an effective option for DR.