This paper presents a correlator-based segmentation algorithm applied
to a non-stationary image, We show that in this algorithm, a moving ta
rget's signature residing in the image sequence can be extracted via m
onitoring the levels of correlation peaks between two adjacent images,
We also present an electro-optical system to implement the algorithm,
It is shown that the performance of this method depends to a great ex
tent on the correlation results and thus the proposed system uses a no
n-linear JTC called BPEJTC that has a much higher peak-to-sidelobe rat
io than a conventional JTC. Moreover, we show that this system effecti
vely distributes the required computations over an optical unit and a
digital unit to reduce the processing time, and the inclusion of optic
al processing enables the system to work well even for massive input d
ata size, Experimental results obtained with a real image sequence are
demonstrated.