Dynamic programming algorithm for detecting dim infrared moving targets

Abstract

Infrared (IR) target detection is a key part of airborne infrared weapon system, especially the detection of poor dim moving IR target embedded in complex context. This paper presents an improved Dynamic Programming (DP) algorithm in allusion to low Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) infrared dim moving targets under cluttered context. The algorithm brings the dim target to prominence by accumulating the energy of pixels in the image sequence, after suppressing the background noise with a mathematical morphology preprocessor. As considering the continuity and stabilization of target's energy and forward direction, this algorithm has well solved the energy scattering problem that exists in the original DP algorithm. An effective energy segmentation threshold is given by a Contrast-Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (CLAHE) filter with a regional peak extraction algorithm. Simulation results show that the improved DP tracking algorithm performs well in detecting poor dim targets.