An ATR system using an integer based correlation algorithm in a time varying environment

In an electro-optical or IR tracking system, a correlation algorithm offers a robust tracking technique in a time-varying scenario. Described in this paper is an automatic target recognition (ATR) algorithm that employs an operator in the loop as an embedded tracking system. The described system combines morphological algorithms with an efficient integer-based correlation tracking algorithm. This algorithm is explored in a time-varying searching and tracking scenario using morphological matched filtering to automatically detect and select objects, with a handover to a correlation tracker. The development of this algorithm using real and synthetic imagery is reviewed, as well as some preliminary results.