Method and system for detection of foreign objects in maritime environments

A computerized system for use in detecting foreign objects in a region of interest in maritime environments, the system comprising:

• data input utility for receiving image data of two or more images successively acquired from said region of interest, said images having a cluttered background;
• one or more processors and memory configured and operable to receive and analyze said image data using one or more modules stored in said memory, comprising:
• a plot detection module for identifying one or more groups of candidate image pixel points adjacently located in regions in the interpolated binary images of said two or more images and generating data indicative thereof;
• and
• a track detection module comprising:
• a micro track detection unit configured and operable to
• determine for at least some of said groups of candidate points micro tracks
• formed by the locations of the grouped points in the two or more successively acquired images and
• being indicative of formation of short term tracks in the received images, and
• generate micro tracks data indicative thereof, and
• a macro track detection unit configured and operable to
• determine correlations between at least some of the micro tracks for
• determining from the locations of said one or more groups of candidate image pixel points in the images
• continuous paths of foreign objects by
• combining the at least some of the micro tracks to thereby overcome intermittent obstruction of the foreign objects due to significant variability of the maritime environment and
• enable generating track data accordingly;
• wherein the plot detection module comprises:
• a decimation utility for
• decimating the received image data and
• generating respective decimated image data;
• a spatial filter utility for
• determining a signal to clutter ratio for each pixel in the image data under analysis and for each pixel in the decimated image data, and
• generating pixel data indicative thereof;
• a threshold utility for
• generating binary images for said image data under analysis and said decimated image data based on said pixel data and an adaptive threshold criterion;
• and
• an interpolation utility for interpolating binary images associated with said decimated image data.