Infrared small target detection algorithm based on feature salience

It is an important and challenging problem to detect small targets in cluttered scenes with low signal noise ratio (SNR) in infrared (IR) images. In order to solve this problem, a method based on feature salience is proposed for automatic target detection against a complex background. First, in this article, the system utilises the average absolute difference maximum (AADM) as the dissimilarity measurement between targets and the background region to enhance targets. Second, the minimum probability of error has been used to build the model of feature salience. Finally, by calculating the probability of features, this method solves the problem of multi-feather fusion. Experimental results show that the algorithm proposed has better performance with respect to probability of detection. It is an effective IR small target detection algorithm against complex backgrounds.