Adaptive order recursive lattice for optical target detection using correlated frames

An adaptive order-recursive least-squares procedure for the detection of an optical target in a heavy clutter environment is introduced. The procedure makes use of the correlated noise (clutter) in the adjacent frames of a scene to suppress the clutter and to detect efficiently the optical target embedded in one of the frames. It does not require much information about the sequence of images, the statistics of the clutter and noise, or the intensity and position of the target. The only requirement is that the background clutter in the two adjacent frames of a scene be partially correlated. The performance of the proposed detection procedure is evaluated using real images with artificially implanted targets