To detect small infrared targets under the condition of dense clutters, we propose a single-frame target detection algorithm based on a small bounding-box filter, which is characterized by good adaptability to the position and size of a small target. During the small target detection process, the proposed algorithm first searches for the local maximum gray pixel and then, a set of concentric bounding boxes whose center is the pixel found in the first step is constructed, and the detection thresholds of a neighboring region of this pixel are calculated based on the bounding boxes. Finally, the minimum threshold is used to detect small target pixels in the neighboring region. A fast version of the proposed algorithm is a minimum bounding-box filter, which can be implemented by dividing an image into blocks and using the mid-range and range to assess the concentration trend and dispersion of the background. Simulation and analysis results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve high detection probability and low false alarm rate when detecting small targets in the complex background; while its fast version has high computational efficiency. The proposed algorithm can be used in infrared searching and tracking systems.
KEYWORDS: Target detection, Detection and tracking algorithms, 3D acquisition, Hough transforms, Signal to noise ratio, Data storage, Binary data, Optical engineering, Computer simulations, 3D image processing
We propose a 3D Hough transform (3D-HT) algorithm that can overcome the disadvantages of high complexity and large data storage space of the existing 3D-HT-based small target detection algorithms. The proposed algorithm uses two coordinates at different times and coordinate errors to construct a 3D pipeline. Subsequently, it counts the number of points in the 3D pipeline and confirms the presence of a target trajectory in the pipeline when the number of points exceeds a predefined threshold. Finally, it performs trajectory merging and filtering before outputting the target trajectory coordinates. The proposed algorithm has low complexity because the used trajectory parameters are the coordinates in the data space, and only a linear transform between the coordinates is required. Unlike the existing algorithms that use an accumulator array to represent the Hough space, the proposed algorithm uses only a single position-adaptive cumulative cell in the Hough space. Therefore, there is no limitation on data storage in the Hough space. Simulation and analysis show that the small target detection algorithm based on the proposed transform is robust to noise, requires small data storage space, and has high computational efficiency. The proposed algorithm can be used in infrared and radar small target trajectory detection systems.
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