IR saliency detection via a GCF-SB visual attention framework

Infrared (IR) saliency detection with high detection accuracy is a challenging task due to the complex background and low contrast of IR images. In this paper, an IR saliency detection method via a new visual attention framework is proposed, which comprises two phases. In the first phase, a Gray & Contrast Features (GCF) model is established, in which the IR image is processed in two feature channels, a gray feature channel and a contrast feature channel. And then a primary feature map can be obtained by fusing the gray and contrast features from these two channels, which is the basis of the second phase. In the second phase, a Similarity-based Bayes (SB) model is established, in which two prior probabilities and two likelihood functions are calculated according to the previously obtained primary feature map. Finally, the saliency map is calculated with the obtained prior probabilities and likelihood functions by Bayes formula. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method can effectively reduce noise and enhance contrast of IR images with complex background and low contrast, and obtain a higher detection accuracy and robustness than seven state-of-the-art methods.