Method of detecting an object in a scene comprising artifacts

A method for detecting an object in a scene situated in a determined angular sector, and capable of comprising one or more artifacts, comprises a step of scanning the sector the angular width A of which is scanned at an angular velocity θ′, a step of acquiring digital images of the scene at a rate f by means of a matrix detector, these images comprising pixels and covering an instantaneous field of angular width “a”, and further comprising the following steps of processing the acquired images, in batches of N consecutive images where N=af/θ′:

• dividing the N images into P groups of images, P being an integer greater than 1,
• for each group p, p being between 1 and P, accumulating the images of the group so as to obtain an accumulated image Ip,
• for each image Ip, selecting the pixels which satisfy a determined detection criterion,
• for each image Ip comprising at least one selected pixel, called the start-of-confirmation image, carrying out a temporal confirmation step which comprises the following substeps:
• applying a temporal confirmation criterion by comparing to a predetermined number K (where K<=P) the number k of times that this selected pixel in the starting image or one of its adjacent pixels has been selected in the subsequent Ip images, the selected pixel in the starting image being counted in k:
• this pixel will be considered to be that of an object if k≧K,
• reiterating this temporal confirmation criterion for all the pixels selected in this starting image as far as those pixels have not already been taken into account in a calculation of k.