SDDNet: Infrared small and dim target detection network

This study focuses on developing deep learning methods for small and dim target detection. We model infrared images as the union of the target region and background region. Based on this model, the target detection problem is considered a two‐class segmentation problem that divides an image into the target and background. Therefore, a neural network called SDDNet for single‐frame images is constructed. The network yields target extraction results according to the original images. For multiframe images, a network called IC‐SDDNet, a combination of SDDNet and an interframe correlation network module is constructed. SDDNet and IC‐SDDNet achieve target detection rates close to 1 on typical datasets with very low false positives, thereby performing significantly better than current methods. Both models can be executed end to end, so both are very convenient to use, and their implementation efficiency is very high. Average speeds of 540+/230+ FPS and 170+/60+ FPS are achieved with SDDNet and IC‐SDDNet on a single Tesla V100 graphics processing unit and a single Jetson TX2 embedded module respectively. Additionally, neither network needs to use future information, so both networks can be directly used in real‐time systems. The well‐trained models and codes used in this study are available at https://github.com/LittlePieces/ObjectDetection.