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Why?

This site was initially published for a few reasons:

  • Published papers based on simulation results should have the source code freely accessible.
  • I wanted to force myself to document useful code from the past few years and make a web site (once again, proving I'm no artist...)
  • It's sad to see people having to rewrite the same programs again and again... although this code isn't good enough for a standard library, it should provide a good start.
  • Most engineering/physics graduates entering radar research have little or no experience of statistics. Target detection and segmentation require fundamental knowledge of radar speckle. This site will eventually provide resources to learn this.
  • If I see one more paper that states as part of an automatic algorithm: `A threshold was used to classify the data', without statistically justifying that threshold, I will shame it on this site. (*) of course I'm not infallible myself....
  • So that people know what I mean when I say I live on the quiet side of a desolate, mountainous island.... I took a pair of JERS images and generated a Digital Elevation Map (DEM) of the Kochi area (Shikoku, Japan). This is used as the image on each page.

(*) Why is this bad? : (1) Calibration errors are usually about 1dB, if the data is calibrated at all. (2) Usually no pixel accurate ground truth is used. (3) classification performance is determined `by eye' with no numerical results. (4) The threshold may work for the test site, but different species/environments will have a different threshold. (5) Backscatter is a function of look and incidence angle - local terrain and beam modes will affect this.

Legal

NO WARRANTY (APPLIED TO ALL RELATED PROGRAMS AND THEORY)

WE PROVIDE ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THIS PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT SHALL KOCHI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY OR ANY RELATED FUNDING ORGANISATION, INCLUDING THE JAPAN SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF SCIENCE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST MONIES, OR OTHER SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA OR ITS ANALYSIS BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY THIRD PARTIES) THE PROGRAM.