Paper
25 April 2007 Power spectrum weighted edge analysis for straight edge detection in images
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Most man-made objects provide characteristic straight line edges and, therefore, edge extraction is a commonly used target detection tool. However, noisy images often yield broken edges that lead to missed detections, and extraneous edges that may contribute to false target detections. We present a sliding-block approach for target detection using weighted power spectral analysis. In general, straight line edges appearing at a given frequency are represented as a peak in the Fourier domain at a radius corresponding to that frequency, and a direction corresponding to the orientation of the edges in the spatial domain. Knowing the edge width and spacing between the edges, a band-pass filter is designed to extract the Fourier peaks corresponding to the target edges and suppress image noise. These peaks are then detected by amplitude thresholding. The frequency band width and the subsequent spatial filter mask size are variable parameters to facilitate detection of target objects of different sizes under known imaging geometries. Many military objects, such as trucks, tanks and missile launchers, produce definite signatures with parallel lines and the algorithm proves to be ideal for detecting such objects. Moreover, shadow-casting objects generally provide sharp edges and are readily detected. The block operation procedure offers advantages of significant reduction in noise influence, improved edge detection, faster processing speed and versatility to detect diverse objects of different sizes in the image. With Scud missile launcher replicas as target objects, the method has been successfully tested on terrain board test images under different backgrounds, illumination and imaging geometries with cameras of differing spatial resolution and bit-depth.
© (2007) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Hrishikesh V. Karvir and Julie A. Skipper "Power spectrum weighted edge analysis for straight edge detection in images", Proc. SPIE 6575, Visual Information Processing XVI, 657507 (25 April 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.718428
Lens.org Logo
CITATIONS
Cited by 3 scholarly publications and 1 patent.
Advertisement
Advertisement
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission  Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace
KEYWORDS
Target detection

Edge detection

Image processing

Detection and tracking algorithms

Image filtering

Signal to noise ratio

Bandpass filters

Back to Top