Transform-ratio ternary phase-amplitude filter formulation for improved correlation discrimination

A method of formulating ternary-valued (−1,0,1) correlation filters based on the ratio of spectral energies of target and nontarget patterns is proposed, and performance of such filters is investigated by computer simulations of correlation. The results confirm the intuitive expectation that such filters can enhance signal-to-clutter and discrimination performance for target recognition in the presence of large amounts of input noise. These filters may be viewed as an extension of binary phase-only filters and similarly are motivated by the prospect of near-term real-time implementation.