Patent ID: 7974475

Claim:
A method for classifying and locating a target in a digital search image, comprising the steps of: receiving target reference images descriptive of said target and an estimate of the a priori probability of said target in said digital search image; forming a plurality of labeled target measurement vectors from said target reference images; receiving said digital search image; forming a plurality of unlabeled measurement vectors from said digital search image; executing a training stage using said a priori probability of said target in said digital search image, said labeled target measurement vectors, and said of unlabeled measurement vectors from said digital search image, including a step of least squares estimation of a Bayes parameter weighting vector; forming a two dimensional Bayes target matching-template from said Bayes parameter weighting vector; correlating said two-dimensional Bayes target matching-template with said digital search image using a spatial domain template-matching image correlation method; and executing an adaptive Bayes classifier to identify objects as either said target or as not-target and determining said target location in said digital search image.