| Abstract: | A computer-automated method for detecting a vessel in water based on an
image of a portion of Earth includes generating a thermal anomaly mask.
The thermal anomaly mask flags each pixel of the image initially deemed
to be a wake pixel based on a comparison of a thermal value of each pixel
against other thermal values of other pixels localized about each pixel.
Contiguous pixels flagged by the thermal anomaly mask are grouped into
pixel clusters. A shape of each of the pixel clusters is analyzed to
determine whether each of the pixel clusters represents a possible vessel
detection event. The possible vessel detection events are represented
visually within the image. |