Small target detection using cross product based on temporal profile in infrared image sequences

This paper presents a new small target detection method using cross product of temporal pixels based on temporal profiles in infrared (IR) image sequences. Temporal characteristics of small targets and various backgrounds are different. A new algorithm classifies target pixels and background pixels through hypothesis testing using the cross product of pixels on temporal profile and predicts the temporal backgrounds based on the results. Small target pixels are detected by subtracting the predicted temporal background profile from the original temporal profile. For performance comparison between the proposed method and the conventional methods, the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves were computed experimentally. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has better discrimination of target and clutter pixels and lower false alarm rates than conventional methods.