A plurality of image chips (202) (over 100), each of the chips containing the same, known target of interest, such as, for example an M109 tank are presented to the
system for training. Each image
chip of the known target is slightly different than the next, showing the known target at different aspect angles and rotation with respect to the moving platform acquiring the image
chip.The
system extract multiple features of the known target from the plurality of image chips (202) presented for storage and analysis, or training. These features distinguish a known target of interest from the nearest similar target to the M109 tank, for example a
Caterpillar D7 bulldozer. These features are stored for use during unknown target identification. When an unknown target
chip is presented, the
recognition algorithm relies on the features stored during training to attempt to identify the target.The tools used for extracting features of the known target of interest as well as the unknown target presented for identification are the same and include the Haar Transform (404), and entropy measurements (410) generating coefficient locations. Using the Karhunen-Loeve (KL) transform 406, eigenvectors are computed. A
Gaussian mixture model (GMM) (507) is used to compare the extracted coefficients and eigenfeatures from the known target chips with that of the unknown target chips. Thus the
system is trained initially by presenting to it known target chips for classification. Subsequently, the system uses the training in the form of stored eigenfeatures and entropy coefficients fused with multiscale features to identify unknown targets.