Dim Small Target Detection Method Based on Nonsubsampled Contourlet Transform in Infrared Image

Aimed at the problem of dim small target detection in infrared image which is characterized by low SNR and the serious background and noise disturbance, a new detection method was proposed based on the nonsubsampled contourlet transform. Firstly, the nonsubsampled contourlet transform was employed to decompose the source image. Considering the different energy distribution characteristics of the target, background and noise, the energy image was constructed by energy cross correlation operation. Then, a few of candidate targets were segmented through adaptive threshold. Finally, the target was confirmed by utilizing the continuity and consistency of target energy intensity and target movement in image sequence. The experimental results showed that the method is effectively and the dim small target can be detected accurately in infrared image sequence.