A system for aircraft recognition in perspective aerial images

Recognition of aircraft in complex, perspective aerial imagery has to be accomplished in presence of clutter, occlusion, shadow, and various forms of image degradation. This paper presents a system for aircraft recognition under real-world conditions that is based on the use of a hierarchical database of object models. The particular approach involves three key processes: (a) The qualitative object recognition process performs model-based symbolic feature extraction and generic object recognition; (b) The refocused matching and evaluation process refines the extracted features for more specific classification with input from (a); and (c) The primitive feature extraction process regulates the extracted features based on their saliency and interacts with (a) and (b). Experimental results showing the qualitative recognition of aircraft in perspective, aerial images are presented