Distinguishing point targets from decoys by fusing thermal and visual images

A method for point target recognition is presented which is based on fusing information from thermal and visual images. Usually targets and decoys are made of different materials, and there are inside heat sources in targets. Thus, their emission, absorption and reflection characteristics in infrared band and in visual band are different. The differences between targets and decoys in the two mentioned bands are used to distinguish targets from decoys. By using information from thermal and visual images, one can acquire information which can not be obtained by using thermal images alone or visual images alone.<<ETX>>