Data Expectations

All interfaces to Kelp-O-Matic make the following assumptions about input images:

1. The data type must be unsigned 8-bit integer.

This is often called uint8 or Byte in software. If your data has a different numerical type, you are very likely to get strange results as output.

If your image meets this condition, all pixels will be in the range 0 - 255.

2. The first three channels of the image must be Red, Green, and Blue (in that order).

Additional channels are accepted and will simply be ignored.

3. The nodata value for your image should be defined in the geotiff metadata.

This is not a strict requirement, but is helpful for skipping classification on blank image areas to speed up processing.

Example

For images with a black background, this value should be 0. For white backgrounds, it should be set to 255.

If there is no nodata value set, any part of the image that is completely black or completely white is classified as "background" by Kelp-O-Matic.