Recursive multi-SEs NWTH method for small target detection in infrared images

Abstract

Mathematical morphology techniques, such as white top-hat (WTH) and new white top-hat (NWTH) transformation have been researched for small target detection application in the infrared (IR) images. However, its target enhancement performance still depends on its SE size set by users. To solve this problem, we propose a recursive multi-structuring elements (multi-SEs) NWTH method with an automatic decision mechanism of the SE size. The proposed method based on the NWTH transformation updates the multi-SEs by calculating candidate target-to-clutter ratio gain (CTCRG) of the NWTH images by the multi-SEs. Through a recursive procedure, final multi-SEs is automatically selected, and then small targets can be detected in a summation image of NWTH images by the final multi-SEs.