The challenge in detecting behind the wall stationary targets appears when the target is close to the wall and has a frequency response that is fully or partially overlapping with the wall's spectrum. In order to detect such targets, background subtraction is usually applied. The main challenge of using this method is the availability of the empty scene, which is typically unavailable to the user. In this paper, we introduce an adaptive background estimation and subtraction technique, to detect objects behind the wall with the focus on human detection. This technique is based on the architecture of the adaptive side-lobe canceller, where a number of antenna elements are used to form a subarray that captures the background in the main beam, while receiving the incident scatterings from the target in the sidelobes. The output of this subarray is then used as the reference signal to suppress the background components at the output of each sensor, through adaptive Recursive Least Squares (RLS) algorithm. This technique can be used with both co- and cross-polarization returns, in order to further reduce the effect of the background and enhance the detectability of the target.

Date Published: 5 May 2009
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 7305, Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense VIII, 730516 (5 May 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.818360

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7305:
Sensors, and Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I) Technologies for Homeland Security and Homeland Defense VIII
Edward M. Carapezza, Editor(s)