# Deep Spatially-Regularized and Superpixel-Based Diffusion Learning for Unsupervised Hyperspectral Image Clustering

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.13307 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.13307/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 14 of its 28 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Apr 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 14 of 14)

- [An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11929/) (2020)
- [SpectralFormer: Rethinking Hyperspectral Image Classification with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.02988/) (2021)
- [Self-supervised Learning in Remote Sensing: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.13188/) (2022)
- [A Comprehensive Survey for Hyperspectral Image Classification: The Evolution from Conventional to Transformers and Mamba Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.14955/) (2024)
- [Graph Convolutional Subspace Clustering: A Robust Subspace Clustering Framework for Hyperspectral Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.10476/) (2020)
- [Superpixel-based and Spatially-regularized Diffusion Learning for Unsupervised Hyperspectral Image Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.15447/) (2023)
- [Learning by Unsupervised Nonlinear Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.06702/) (2018)
- [Spectral-Spatial Diffusion Geometry for Hyperspectral Image Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.05402/) (2019)
- [Spatially regularized active diffusion learning for high-dimensional images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.02155/) (2019)
- [Multiscale Clustering of Hyperspectral Images Through Spectral-Spatial Diffusion Geometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.15783/) (2021)
- [Active Diffusion and VCA-Assisted Image Segmentation of Hyperspectral Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06298/) (2022)
- [Unsupervised Diffusion and Volume Maximization-Based Clustering of Hyperspectral Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09992/) (2022)
- [Deep Diffusion Processes for Active Learning of Hyperspectral Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.03197/) (2021)
- [Unsupervised detection of ash dieback disease (Hymenoscyphus fraxineus) using diffusion-based hyperspectral image clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.09041/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

An unsupervised framework for hyperspectral image (HSI) clustering is proposed that incorporates masked deep representation learning with diffusion-based clustering, extending the Spatially-Regularized Superpixel-based Diffusion Learning (S2DL) algorithm. Initially, a denoised latent representation of the original HSI is learned via an unsupervised masked autoencoder (UMAE) model with a Vision Transformer backbone. The UMAE takes spatial context and long-range spectral correlations into account and incorporates an efficient pretraining process via masking that utilizes only a small subset of training pixels. In the next stage, the entropy rate superpixel (ERS) algorithm is used to segment the image into superpixels, and a spatially regularized diffusion graph is constructed using Euclidean and diffusion distances within the compressed latent space instead of the HSI space. The proposed algorithm, Deep Spatially-Regularized Superpixel-based Diffusion Learning (DS2DL), leverages more faithful diffusion distances and subsequent diffusion graph construction that better reflect the intrinsic geometry of the underlying data manifold, improving labeling accuracy and clustering quality. Experiments on Botswana and KSC datasets demonstrate the efficacy of DS2DL.