LOCALLY NONLINEAR MATCHED FILTERING

A new matched filter for pattern recognition is introduced. Previous researchers have introduced matched filters that are nonlinear functions of the spectrum, for which the classical matched filter is divided by some power m of the spectrum of interest. We further generalize this filter by making the power m a function of the spatial frequency; this permits the design of filters that combine the advantageous properties of matched filters, phase-only filters, and inverse filters without the corresponding disadvantages. The first computer experiments indicate that the new filter yields sharper correlation peaks and better discrimination than the matched filter and the phase-only filter and yields more robustness against noise.