Contrasted statistical processing algorithm for obtaining improved target detection performances in infrared cluttered environment

A contrasted statistical processing approach to obtain im- proved probabilities of false alarm when performing automatic target de- tection is presented. The technique is based on analyzing each sector of the image and comparing it with surrounding windows in which the de- sired statistical property is calculated. The contrast of the statistical prop- erty is extracted using the prediction or the prediction-correction equa- tions. The contrast of the statistical property is shown to be a good discriminator of the target from its background allowing the reduction of the detection threshold applied over the stationary region while maintain- ing a constant false alarm probability. © 2000 Society of Photo-Optical Instru- mentation Engineers. (S0091-3286(00)02110-3)