One of the desired capabilities for wide-area persistent ISR systems is to reliably locate and subsequently track the movement of targets within the field of view. Current wide-area persistent ISR systems are characterized by large pixel overall counts and very large fields of view. This leads to a large ground sample distance with few pixels-on-target. Locating targets under these constraints is extremely difficult due to the fact that the targets present very little detailed structure. In this paper we will present the application of rich image feature descriptors combined with advanced statistical target detection methodologies to the airborne ISR problem. We will demonstrate that these algorithms can reliably locate targets in the scene without relying on the target's motion to form a detection. This is useful in ISR application where it is desirable to be able to continuously track a target through stops and maneuvers.

Date Published: 13 June 2014
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 9092, Signal and Data Processing of Small Targets 2014, 909202 (13 June 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2050440

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9092:
Signal and Data Processing of Small Targets 2014
Oliver E. Drummond, Editor(s)