The invention relates to an
infrared weak and
small target detection method and device based on an image
inpainting technology. The method comprises the following steps: extracting a to-be-processed current frame
infrared image from an
infrared video image, respectively detecting weak and small targets through a
spatial domain algorithm and a
time domain algorithm, merging suspected weak and
small target areas obtained by the two ways into a candidate weak and
small target area, digging out the candidate target area from an original
infrared image, and obtaining a weak and small target area; the method comprises the following steps of: recovering and estimating a pixel where a candidate target is located by using an image
inpainting technology, reconstructing a current frame of infrared
background image, subtracting the current frame of infrared
background image from the current frame of infrared
background image to obtain a target
saliency map, and segmenting the target
saliency map to obtain a weak target. According to the method, the
detection rate of the infrared weak and small target is effectively improved, false alarms caused by
noise,
clutter, edges and other factors are reduced, the
algorithm complexity is low, the calculation amount is small, and the real-time requirement in actual
engineering application is easily met.