Statistically independent region processor for target and background with random textures: whitening preprocessing approach

The problem of locating a target with a random texture appearing on a random background is addressed. We describe a whitening preprocessing approach which allows one to generalize the domain of application of the Statistically Independent Region processor. It is shown that the statistics of both the target and the background of the preprocessed image can be approximated by white Gaussian probability density functions, which correspond to the condition of optimality for the Statistically Independent Region processor. Furthermore, we analyze the relevance of introducing a boundary between the target and the background in the preprocessed image. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.