Performance evaluation of 2-D adaptive prediction filters for detection of small objects in image data

This paper studies the performance of two dimensional least mean square (TDLMS) adaptive filters as prewhitening filters for the detection of small objects in image data. The object of interest is assumed to have a very small spatial spread and is obscured by correlated clutter of much larger spatial extent. The correlated clutter is predicted and subtracted from the input signal, leaving components of the spatially small signal in the residual output. The receiver operating characteristics of a detection system augmented by a TDLMS prewhitening filter are plotted using Monte-Carlo techniques. It is shown that such a detector has better operating characteristics than a conventional matched filter in the presence of correlated clutter. For very low signal-to-background ratios, TDLMS-based detection systems show a considerable reduction in the number of false alarms. The output energy in both the residual and prediction channels of such filters is shown to be dependent on the correlation length of the various components in the input signal. False alarm reduction and detection gains obtained by using this detection scheme on thermal infrared sensor data with known object positions is presented.