Infrared Dim and Small Target Detection via Multiple Subspace Learning and Spatial-Temporal Patch-Tensor Model

Robust detection of infrared small and dim targets with highly heterogeneous backgrounds plays an indispensable role in infrared search and tracking (IRST) system, which is still a challenging problem. In this article, a novel method based on multisubspace learning and spatial-temporal tensor data structure is aimed to solve this problem. First, a tensor data structure is constructed to use inner correlation in spatial and temporal domain of the infrared image sequence. Second, in consideration of the complex and heterogeneous backgrounds in infrared images, the proposed method promotes the multisubspace property to tensor domain to separate the target and the background more accurately. Finally, an efficient and effective optimization algorithm based on alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) is designed to solve this problem. Experimental results on various and real scenes demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method compared to other five baseline methods.