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China makes ‘world’s largest satellite image database’ to train AI better

  • New FAIR1M database is tens or hundreds of times larger than previous data sets, according to Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Database of 15,000 high-definition images with 1 million labelled ‘scenes’ can aid AI’s accuracy, such as enabling it to identify not only a plane but its model

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The images were compiled with the help of access to China’s new Gaofen observation satellites. Photo: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Stephen Chen
A satellite imaging database containing detailed information of more than a million locations has been launched in China to help reduce errors made by artificial intelligences when identifying objects from space, the Chinese Academy of Sciences said on Wednesday.

The fine-grained object recognition in the high-resolution remote sensing imagery (FAIR1M) database is tens or even hundreds of times larger than similar data sets used in other countries, it said.

Professor Fu Kun, a lead scientist on the FAIR1M project with the academy’s Aerospace Information Research Institute in Beijing, said the relatively small size of databases for artificial intelligence (AI) training in satellite image recognition had affected accuracy in real-life applications.

Satellite images in the data set have more specific labelling than in previous ones. Photo: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Satellite images in the data set have more specific labelling than in previous ones. Photo: Chinese Academy of Sciences

“A challenging and excellent data set can accelerate the development of the field,” he and colleagues said in a paper about their work, posted on arxiv.org in March.

Militaries have used spy satellites to study objects of interest since the 1960s. Assessment was initially done manually by trained professionals, before computers helped to speed up the process. Military image recognition technology was mostly classified, and usually limited to a small range of sensitive objects.

In recent years, rapid development of AI technology has enabled civilians to obtain valuable information from commercial satellite images.

Counting the number of cargo trucks on the roads of a city or even a country, for instance, could provide insight into economic activity, transport and infrastructure.

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