Dim Small Target Detection and Tracking: A Novel Method Based on Temporal Energy Selective Scaling and Trajectory Association

Abstract

Effective detection and tracking of dim and small targets with low SCR has become a research hotspot due to its wide range of applications. However, most of the previously proposed methods seldom utilize the abundant temporal features formed by target motion, resulting in poor detection and tracking performance for low SCR targets. In this article, we analyze the difficulty based on spatial features and the feasibility based on temporal features of realizing effective detection. According to this analysis, we use a multiframe as a detection unit and propose a detection method based on TESS. Specifically, we investigated the composition of ITPs formed by pixels on a multiframe detection unit. For the target-present pixel, the target passing through the pixel will bring a weak transient disturbance on the ITP and introduce a change in the statistical properties of ITP. We use a well-designed function to amplify the transient disturbance, suppress the background and noise components, and output the trajectory of the target. Subsequently, to solve the contradiction between the detection rate and the false alarm rate brought by the traditional threshold segmentation, we associate the temporal and spatial features of the trajectory and propose a trajectory extraction method based on the 3-D Hough transform. Finally, we propose a trajectory segments-based multitarget tracking method. Compared with the various state-of-the-art detection and tracking methods, experiments in multiple scenarios prove the superiority of our proposed methods for dim and small targets in low SCR.

Keywords

• 3-D Hough transform
• intensity temporal profiles (ITPs)
• low signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR)
• small target
• target trajectory
• temporal energy selective scaling (TESS)