Target recognition under nonuniform illumination conditions

A two-step algorithm for reliable recognition of a target imbedded into a two-dimensional nonuniformly illuminated and noisy scene is presented. The input scene is preprocessed with a space-domain pointwise procedure followed by an optimum correlation. The preprocessing is based on an estimate of the source illumination function, whereas the correlation filter is optimized with respect to the mean-squared-error criterion for detecting a target in the preprocessed scene. Computer simulations are provided and compared with those of various common techniques in terms of recognition performance and tolerance to nonuniform illumination as well as to additive noise. Experimental optodigital results are also provided and discussed.