Object tracking in infrared images using a deep learning model and a target-attention mechanism

Abstract

Small object tracking in infrared images is widely utilized in various fields, such as video surveillance, infrared guidance, and unmanned aerial vehicle monitoring. The existing small target detection strategies in infrared images suffer from submerging the target in heavy cluttered infrared (IR) maritime images. To overcome this issue, we use the original image and the corresponding encoded image to apply our model. We use the local directional number patterns algorithm to encode the original image to represent more unique details. Our model is able to learn more informative and unique features from the original and encoded image for visual tracking. In this study, we explore the best convolutional filters to obtain the best possible visual tracking results by finding those inactive to the backgrounds while active in the target region. To this end, the attention mechanism for the feature extracting framework is investigated comprising a scale-sensitive feature generation component and a discriminative feature generation module based on the gradients of regression and scoring losses. Comprehensive experiments have demonstrated that our pipeline obtains competitive results compared to recently published papers.