Synthetic template: effective tool for target classification and machine vision

A process for replacing a voluminous image dictionary, which characterizes a certain target of interest in a constrained zone of effectiveness representing controlled states including scale and view angle, with a synthetic template has been developed. Synthetic template (ST) is a spatial map (grayscale image) obtained by combining the set of zone-specific training images that are ascribed to the target of interest. It has been shown that the solo-template ST correlation filter outperforms filter banks comprised of multiple target-class training images. A geometric interpretation of the basic ST concept is employed in order to further explain and substantiate its properties. Keywords—machine vision; image procession; target classification; correlation filter