Patent ID: 8872693

Claim:
A method for assessing radar signature databases for use in training a radar target recognition decision algorithm, the method comprising the steps of: generating radar signature data from at least three targets using a first process and a second process, wherein the radar signature data includes at least one of measured radar data and synthetic radar data, and wherein the targets comprise at least two different target classes, at least two targets being in a same target class and at least one target being in a different target class; producing a first radar signature database using the first process and a second radar signature database using the second process; comparing the first radar signature database and the second radar signature database using an information theoretic method; computing an amount of cumulative mutual information between the first radar signature database and the second radar signature database for targets comprising the same target class and for targets comprising different target classes, wherein the cumulative mutual information comprises a sum of modal mutual information, MMI, derived from comparison of radar signature data from at least two targets, whereby numerical instabilities often incurred in computation of cumulative mutual information are eliminated through incremental computation of MMI; and based on the amount of cumulative mutual information between the first radar signature database and the second radar signature database, determining whether the first process and second process are suitable for use together to generate a hybrid radar signature database for training the radar target recognition decision algorithm.