Scale-space point spread function based framework to boost infrared target detection algorithms

Small target detection is one of the major concern in the development of infrared surveillance systems. Detection algorithms based on Gaussian target modeling have attracted most attention from researchers in this field. However, the lack of accurate target modeling limits the performance of this type of infrared small target detection algorithms. In this paper, signal to clutter ratio (SCR) improvement mechanism based on the matched filter is described in detail and effect of Point Spread Function (PSF) on the intensity and spatial distribution of the target pixels is clarified comprehensively. In the following, a new parametric model for small infrared targets is developed based on the PSF of imaging system which can be considered as a matched filter. Based on this model, a new framework to boost model-based infrared target detection algorithms is presented. In order to show the performance of this new framework, the proposed model is adopted in Laplacian scale-space algorithms which is a well-known algorithm in the small infrared target detection field. Simulation results show that the proposed framework has better detection performance in comparison with the Gaussian one and improves the overall performance of IRST system. By analyzing the performance of the proposed algorithm based on this new framework in a quantitative manner, this new framework shows at least 20% improvement in the output SCR values in comparison with Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG) algorithm.