Meta-classifiers for exploiting feature dependencies in automatic target recognition

Of active interest in automatic target recognition (ATR) is the problem of combining the complementary merits of multiple classifiers. This is inspired by decades of research in the area which has seen a variety of fairly successful feature extraction techniques as well as decision engines being developed. While heuristically based fusion techniques are omnipresent, this paper explores a principled meta classification strategy that is based on the exploitation of correlation between multiple feature extractors as well as decision engines. We present two learning algorithms respectively based on support vector machines and AdaBoost, which combine soft-outputs of state of the art individual classifiers to yield an overall improvement in recognition rates. Experimental results obtained from benchmark SAR image databases reveal that the proposed meta-classification strategies are not only asymptotically superior but also have better robustness to choice of training over state-of-the art individual classifiers.