An Improved Viterbi Algorithm for PMMW Moving Targets Detection

For the detecting moving target, an Improved Viterbi Algorithm (IVA) is a useful technique for a Track Before Detect (TBD) architecture implementation, designed to track and detect dim maneuvering targets from an image sequence under low signal-to-noise ratio(SNR) conditions. It especially suits real passive millimeter wave (PMMW) as the objects radiant energy is very weak. The IVA does a search over all the possible state sequences, marking probable tracks by scanning each pixel in each frame, and determining where it was likely to originate from in the previous image. In this paper the real time calculation of detecting threshold and the IVA process is described. The experimental results show that the IVA performs well for dim PMMW image sequences at low SNR environment with complex background.