Evaluation of infrared camouflage effectiveness via a multi-fractal method

This paper reports an alternative approach to the evaluation of infrared camouflage effectiveness via a multi-fractal method. By calculating multi-fractal spectra of the target region and the background regions in an infrared image, the spectrum shape features and the discrete Fréchet distances among these spectra were used to analyze the camouflage effectiveness of the target qualitatively and quantitatively, and the correlation coefficients of the spectra were further used as the index of camouflage effectiveness. It was found that the camouflaged target had better camouflage effectiveness than the target without camouflage in the same one background, and the same one camouflaged target had different camouflage effectiveness in different backgrounds. On the whole, the target matching well with its background had high camouflage effectiveness value. This approach can expand the application of multi-fractal theory in infrared camouflage technology, which should be useful for the research of infrared camouflage materials, the design of camouflage patterns as well as the deployment of military equipment in battlefield.