Ad. Lanterman, Bayesian inference of thermodynamic state incorporating Schwarz-Rissanen complexity for infrared target recognition, OPT ENG, 39(5), 2000, pp. 1282-1292
The recognition of targets in IR scenes is complicated by the wide variety
of appearances associated with different thermodynamic states. We represent
variability in the thermal signatures of targets via an expansion in terms
of "eigentanks" derived from a principal component analysis performed over
the target's surface. Employing a Poisson sensor likelihood, or equivalent
ly a likelihood based on Csiszar's I-divergence (a natural discrepancy meas
ure for nonnegative images), yields a coupled set of nonlinear equations wh
ich must be solved to compute maximum a posteriori estimates of the thermod
ynamic expansion coefficients. We propose a weighted least-squares approxim
ation to the Poisson loglikelihood for which the MAP estimates are solution
s of linear equations. Bayesian model order estimation techniques are emplo
yed to choose the number of expansion coefficients; this prevents target mo
dels with numerous eigentanks in their representation from having an unfair
advantage over simple target models. The Bayesian integral is approximated
by Schwarz's application of Laplace's method of integration; this techniqu
e is closely related to Rissanen's minimum description length criteria. Our
implementation of these techniques on Silicon Graphics computers exploits
the flexible nature of their rendering engines. The implementation is illus
trated in estimating the orientation of a tank and the optimum number of re
presentative eigentanks for both simulated and real data. (C) 2000 Society
of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.