Infrared Target Extraction Using Weighted Information Entropy and Adaptive Opening Filter

Abstract

In infrared (IR) images, near targets have a transient distribution at the boundary region, as opposed to a steady one at the inner region. Based on this fact, this paper proposes a novel IR target extraction method that uses both a weighted information entropy (WIE) and an adaptive opening filter to extract near finely shaped targets in IR images. Firstly, the boundary region of a target is detected using a local variance WIE of an original image. Next, a coarse target region is estimated via a labeling process used on the boundary region of the target. From the estimated coarse target region, a fine target shape is extracted by means of an opening filter having an adaptive structure element. The size of the structure element is decided in accordance with the width information of the target boundary and mean WIE values of windows of varying size. Our experimental results show that the proposed method obtains a better extraction performance than existing algorithms.

IR-Band Conversion of Target and Background Using Surface Temperature Estimation and Error Compensation for Military IR Sensor Simulation

“…Additionally, for this purpose, target detection methods for detecting small targets or moving objects in IR images are used, because missiles are usually included in backgrounds of IR images. Since the IR-guided missiles are common in modern warfare, various spatial [25,26,27,28] and temporal [1,29,30] target-detection methods have been proposed for detecting missiles or small targets. The IR image tracker uses IR images of LWIR-band or MWIR-band.…”

“…The proposed IR band conversion method may simplify the construction of IR system that consist of various IR band cameras [31,32] such as a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) system for obtaining LWIR and MWIR image used for target tracking and detection. This method can be applied to the aforementioned small target detection field [25,26,27,28,29,30] by using temperature, radiation, and gray-level information obtained from the plurality of IR band images converted from arbitrary IR band images and can be utilized for accurate classification of military targets such as tanks, planes, and warships [33,34,35]. In addition, in IR and the visible image synthesis field [36] for object detection, the detection performance can be further improved by combining converted IR band images.…”