Temporal filters for point target detection in IR imagery

Abstract

In this paper, we approach the problem of point target detection in infrared image sequences by investigating the application of the continuous wavelet transform to temporal pixel profiles. Observations made on the resulting time-scale images suggest that a multiscale temporal filtering algorithm is suitable for this application. Such an algorithm would exploit the fact that those clutter pixels that are the cause of false alarms when using a medium scale filter, respond to fine and coarse scale filters differently than the target pixels. To demonstrate the effectiveness of a multiscale approach, a first-cut 3-scale approach is tested on actual infrared image sequences featuring targets of opportunity and evolving cloud clutter. Results indicate that the 3-scale approach exhibits improved clutter suppression and target detection, when compared to a single scale filtering approach.