A real-time target detection algorithm based on combination of intensity and edge for infrared search system

With regard to aircraft target detection in complex clouds background of infrared search system, this paper proposes a new target detection algorithm based on combination of intensity and edge of the target. Firstly, the algorithm segments the image by iterative OTSU segmentation method, at the same time, it detects the edge by morphological processing. Then, by the fusion decision of the combination of segmentation and edge result, it detects the real aircraft targets and eliminates the clouds false alarm. The algorithm overcomes the too much clouds false alarm problems of the traditional target detection method. The test data detection shows, the algorithm enables effective detection of aircraft target in complex clouds background with low-rate false warning. The algorithm has realized real-time processing and has been effectively applied to the development of the engineering sample of the Wide Field of View Infrared Search System.