Method and system for detection of foreign objects in maritime environments
First Claim
1. A method for detecting foreign objects in a region of interest in a maritime environment, the method comprising:
- receiving image data indicative of a sequence of successively acquired images of the region of interest,analyzing each image in said sequence of images to determine candidate image pixel points of interestin the generated data indicative of the interpolated image data;
processing the generated data indicative of the candidate image pixel points in the image dataidentifying the candidate image pixel points having adjacently located coordinates in two or more of the consecutive images, andgenerating grouping data indicative of a plurality of groups of said adjacently located candidate image pixel points; and
processing the grouping data,said processing the grouping data comprisingidentifying spatio-temporal correlation between the adjacently located image pixel points in each group of candidate points for determining for at least some of said groups of candidate points micro tracks formed by the locations of the grouped points in the two or more consecutive images and being indicative of formation of short term tracks in the received images, andgenerating micro tracks data indicative thereof,wherein said analyzing of the sequence of images comprises;
applying to each image under analysis of the sequence of images one or more decimation functions and generating respective decimated image data;
computing a signal to clutter ratio for each pixel in said image under analysis and for each pixel in said decimated image data;
processing the generated signal to clutter ratios andgenerating therefrom one or more respective binary image datafor said image under analysis, andfor said respective decimated image data according to an adaptive thresholding criterion; and
interpolating binary image data associated with said decimated image data, and generating data indicative of interpolated image data.
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Abstract
The present invention provides techniques for detecting foreign objects in a region of interest in maritime environments. Image data indicative of a sequence of successively acquired images of the region of interest, is analyzed to determine candidate points of interest, and data indicative of said points is processed to identify candidate points that are adjacently accumulated in different locations in images data. Grouping data may be then generated based on the identified accumulations of candidate points indicative of a group of said candidate points. The grouping data is processed to identify spatio-temporal correlation between the points in the group and determine a corresponding track function, thereby enabling detection of a presence of a foreign object in the image data.
10 Citations
11 Claims
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1. A method for detecting foreign objects in a region of interest in a maritime environment, the method comprising:
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receiving image data indicative of a sequence of successively acquired images of the region of interest, analyzing each image in said sequence of images to determine candidate image pixel points of interest in the generated data indicative of the interpolated image data; processing the generated data indicative of the candidate image pixel points in the image data identifying the candidate image pixel points having adjacently located coordinates in two or more of the consecutive images, and generating grouping data indicative of a plurality of groups of said adjacently located candidate image pixel points; and processing the grouping data, said processing the grouping data comprising identifying spatio-temporal correlation between the adjacently located image pixel points in each group of candidate points for determining for at least some of said groups of candidate points micro tracks formed by the locations of the grouped points in the two or more consecutive images and being indicative of formation of short term tracks in the received images, and generating micro tracks data indicative thereof, wherein said analyzing of the sequence of images comprises; applying to each image under analysis of the sequence of images one or more decimation functions and generating respective decimated image data; computing a signal to clutter ratio for each pixel in said image under analysis and for each pixel in said decimated image data; processing the generated signal to clutter ratios and generating therefrom one or more respective binary image data for said image under analysis, and for said respective decimated image data according to an adaptive thresholding criterion; and interpolating binary image data associated with said decimated image data, and generating data indicative of interpolated image data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A computerized system for use in detecting foreign objects in a region of interest in maritime environments, the system comprising:
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data input utility for receiving image data of two or more images successively acquired from said region of interest, said images having a cluttered background; one or more processors and memory configured and operable to receive and analyze said image data using one or more modules stored in said memory, comprising; a plot detection module for identifying one or more groups of candidate image pixel points adjacently located in regions in the interpolated binary images of said two or more images and generating data indicative thereof; and a track detection module comprising; a micro track detection unit configured and operable to determine for at least some of said groups of candidate points micro tracks formed by the locations of the grouped points in the two or more successively acquired images and being indicative of formation of short term tracks in the received images, and generate micro tracks data indicative thereof, and a macro track detection unit configured and operable to determine correlations between at least some of the micro tracks for determining from the locations of said one or more groups of candidate image pixel points in the images continuous paths of foreign objects by combining the at least some of the micro tracks to thereby overcome intermittent obstruction of the foreign objects due to significant variability of the maritime environment and enable generating track data accordingly; wherein the plot detection module comprises; a decimation utility for decimating the received image data and generating respective decimated image data; a spatial filter utility for determining a signal to clutter ratio for each pixel in the image data under analysis and for each pixel in the decimated image data, and generating pixel data indicative thereof; a threshold utility for generating binary images for said image data under analysis and said decimated image data based on said pixel data and an adaptive threshold criterion; and an interpolation utility for interpolating binary images associated with said decimated image data. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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Specification