The polarity-coincidence correlator: A nonparametric detection device

It is shown that the polarity-coincidence correlator (PCC), a two-input detection device, is nonparametric in its false-alarm rate with respect to a wide class of signal and noise distributions. Operating in fixed distributions, the probability of detection is a nondecreasing function of input SNR. Although the PCC performs less well than an ordinary correlator or a Neyman-Pearson detector for Gaussian inputs, it can be markedly superior to both.