University Defence Research Centre (UDRC) in Signal Processing at Imperial College

Target detection in in sonar imagery has been widely researched in the past. Yet, the performances achieved are operationally unacceptable for all but the most benign seabed types. Because of the limited resolution of existing imaging sonars and the strong effect of speckle on target scattering, most algorithms have focused on the acoustic shadow casted by the target when illuminated by the sonar. These techniques fail when the seabed is complex (3D texture).