Wire detection in low-altitude, urban, and low-quality video frames

We introduce a novel wire detection algorithm for use in low altitude urban aircraft reconnaissance. A line profile model is described and effectively used to discriminate wires from other linear patterns commonly found in urban scenes. The algorithm is able to cope with highly cluttered backgrounds, moderate rain and mist, and with no stabilization of camera. The studied domain is of particular interest to urban search and rescue and military reconnaissance operations. The algorithmpsilas receiver operating characteristic curve is shown, based on a multi-site dataset with 10160 wires spanning in 5576 frames. Encouraging results show up to 37% detection improvement over a previously published baseline algorithm for comparable false alarm rates.