Analysis of multimodal binary detection systems based on dependent/independent modalities

Performance limits of multimodal detection systems are analyzed in this paper. Two main setups are considered, i.e., based on fusion of dependent and independent modalities, respectively. The analysis is performed in terms of attainable probability of detection errors characterized by the corresponding error exponents. It is demonstrated that an expected performance gain from fusion of dependent modalities is superior than in the case when one fuses independent signals. In order to quantify the efficiency of dependent modality fusion versus the independent case, the problem analysis is performed in the Gaussian formulation.