An efficient method of small targets detection in low SNR

In this paper, an efficient method based on nonlinear adaptive filtering is proposed to detect the small IR target of low SNR under the complex background. The morphologic filter can be constructed firstly based on the IR radiation traits of low SNR small targets in the complex background and then a morphological method is used to eliminate the influence of the unbalance background to the image segmentation. Next an algorithm of adaptive threshold segmentation is adopted in order to select the small moving target and the noise points. Finally, on the basis of image sequences, the satisfactory targets detection is accomplished after eliminating wrong point targets. The method presented in this paper can effectively suppress the noise and the air background of the original image, enhance the ability of point target detection in single frame.