Air-borne approaching target detection and tracking in infrared image sequence

Abstract

Detection and tracking of approaching targets in an infrared (IR) image sequence is important for surveillance applications. In this paper an algorithm is proposed which provides a complete solution (track while scan) for detection and tracking for IRST system. The proposal method uses only motion as a cue to detect the target. Detection is followed by tracking. In a real scenario, the movement of a target is arbitrary and no a priori information is available. We propose a tracking method which tracks maneuvering and nonmaneuvering targets simultaneously using a filter bank. The switch-over amongst the filters is based on a single-step decision logic.