Target detection improvements using temporal integrations and spatial fusion

A method to identify a potential target from image data of a scene, comprising:

• receiving at least two frames of image data from at least one imaging sensor;
• thresholding the frames of image data, wherein said frames of image data are frames of image data from across multiple time frames of said at least one sensor or frames of image data from a plurality of said sensors;
• fusing the frames of image data after thresholding, by spatial fusion if the frames of image data are frames of image data from said plurality of sensors or by temporal fusion if the frames of image data are frames of image data from across multiple time frames of said at least one sensor;
• and
• identifying candidate targets from the fused image data.

A device to identify potential targets from at least two frames of image data generated by at least one imaging sensor and representative of a scene, comprising:

• a fusion module configured to perform at least one of a temporal fusion and a spatial fusion of the generated frames of image data;
• and
• a threshold module configured to apply thresholding techniques on the fused image data, wherein
• the temporal fusion includes temporally fusing the frames of image data across a plurality of time frames and the at least two frames of image data are from the same sensor;
• and
• the spatial fusion includes fusing the frames of image data across a single time frame and the at least two frames of image data are from different sensors.

A method to identify a potential target from data, comprising the steps of:

• receiving as input data, a plurality of time frames of data from at least one sensor;
• extracting, from said time frames of data, at least one feature;
• performing a pre-detection technique on the least one extracted feature, where said pre-detection technique includes either a double threshold technique or a reverse threshold technique;
• and
• determining whether said extracted feature is a potential target.

A method to identify a potential target from data, comprising the steps of:

• receiving, as input, data from a plurality of sensors;
• performing a pre-detection fusion technique on data corresponding to at least one extracted feature from each sensor;
• wherein said pre-detection fusion technique includes at least one technique that is selected from a group comprised of additive fusion, multiplicative fusion, minimum fusion and maximum fusion;
• and
• determining whether the pre-detection fused data is a potential target.

A target detection apparatus, comprising:

• a plurality of sensors for outputting data related to a target, said data from each sensor having a plurality of time frames;
• temporal processing means for integrating the data supplied from each of said plurality of sensors;
• spatial processing means for fusing the temporally integrated sensor data from said temporal processing means, wherein said spatial processing means detects the target from the spatially fused data and provides an indication corresponding to the detected target;
• and
• means for utilizing the indication of the detected target.