A) Convolutional Neural Networks (119)
U-Net (9)
ISTDU-Net ()
UIU-Net ()
X. Wu, D. Hong, J. Chanussot, "UIU-Net: U-Net in U-Net for Infrared Small Object Detection", IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Volume 32, pages 364-376, 2023.
CourtNet ()
J. Peng, H. Zhao, K. Zhao, Z. Wang, L. Yao, "CourtNet: Dynamically Balance the Precision and Recall Rates in Infrared Small Target Detection", Expert Systems with Applications, 2023.
ID-UNet ()
D. Chen and F. Qin and R. Ge and Y. Peng and C. Wang, "ID-UNet: A Densely Connected UNet Architecture for Infrared Small Target Segmentation", Alexandria Engineering Journal, 2025.
SP-KAN ()
S. Yuan, Y. Liu, X. Zhang, X. Yan, H. Qin, N. Akhtar, “SP-KAN: Sparse-sine perception Kolmogorov–Arnold networks for infrared small target detection”, ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, April 2026.
DHiF ()
R. Li, C. Xiao, Q. Yin, W. An, N. Chen, X. Ying, M. Li, Y. Wang, "Dynamic High-frequency Convolution for Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2026.
HC ()
C. Hu, M. Zhou, S. Yuan, H. Hu, Z. Peng, T. Pu, X. Li, "Difference Decomposition Networks for Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2026.
SFC-INRNet ()
Z. Xu, "Spatial-Frequency Collaborative Implicit Representation for Infrared Small Target Detection", The Visual Computer, 2026.
U-Shape (2)
ISGLNet ()
F. Zhang, A. Pan, J. Yang, S. Deng, S. Zhao, C. Zhou, "ISGLNet: Infrared Small Target Detection With Intrinsic Sensitivity and Guided Learning", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, pages 1-17, 2025.
LASNet ()
S. Chen, L. Ji, S. Zhu, M. Ye, H. Ren, Y. Sang, "Toward Dense Moving Infrared Small Target Detection: New Datasets and Baseline", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 62, pages 1-13, 2024.
SAM (4)
IRSAM ()
M. Zhang, Y. Wang, J. Guo, Y. Li, X. Gao, J. Zhang, "IRSAM: Advancing Segment Anything Model for Infrared Small Target Detection", ECCV 2024, 2024.
SAM-SPL ()
Y. Fu, J. Lyu, P. Ma, Z. Liu, M. Ng, "A Unified SAM-Guided Self-Prompt Learning Framework for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, pages 1-14, 2025.
SimIR ()
M. Zhang and C. Zhang and Q. Zhang and Y. Li and X. Gao and J. Zhang, "Unleashing the Power of Generic Segmentation Models: A Simple Baseline for Infrared Small Target Detection", ACM Multimedia, MM 2024, 2024.
S2IPNet ()
H. Fan, "S2IPNet: SAM 2 Guided Information Preservation Network for Infrared Small Target Detection”, 2026.
Data Augmentation (2)
TSMSA ()
S. Peng, L. Ji, S. Chen, W. Duan, S. Zhu, "Temporal Segmentation Modeling with Sample Augmentation for Moving Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2025.
AugTarget ()
S. Chen, J. Zhu, L. Ji, H. Pan, Y. Xu, "AugTarget Data Augmentation for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, ICASSP 2023, pages 1-5, 2023.
Adaptive Mechanisms (1)
AER-Net ()
F. Zhang, J. Yang, S. Deng, "AER-net: Adaptive Feature Enhancement and Hierarchical Refinement Network for Infrared Small Target Detection, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Volume 73, pages 1-18, 2024.
Learning Mechanisms (9)
DETL-Net ()
R. Yao and W. Li and Y. Zhou and J. Sun and Z. Yin and J. Zhao, "Dual-Stream Edge-Target Learning Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 62, pages 1-14, 2024.
PAL () [Plug and Play]
C. Yu, J. Zhao, Y. Liu, S. Zhao, Y. Dai, X. Yue, "From Easy to Hard: Progressive Active Learning Framework for Infrared Small Target Detection with Single Point Supervision", IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision, ICCV 2025, pages 2588-2598, 2025.
MTMLNet ()
B. Yang, F. Li, S. Zhao, W. Wang, J. Luo, H. Pu, "MTMLNet: Multi-Task Mutual Learning Network for Infrared Small Target Detection and Segmentation", IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Volume 34, pages 4414-4425, 2025.
LELCM ()
D. Yang, H. Zhang, Y. Li, Z. Jian, "Label Evolution based on Local Contrast Measure for Single-Point Supervised Infrared Small-Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 62, 2024.
IRSTD-SFDA ()
P. Wang, R. Zhang, J. Wang, "A Prior-Driven Self-Evolving Source-Free Domain Adaptation Approach for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 2026.
LSP () [Plug and Play]
Y. Yao, P. Qian, Z. Liu, L. Ma, W. Wang, "Learning with Semantic Priors: Stabilizing Point-Supervised Infrared Small Target Detection via Hierarchical Knowledge Distillation", International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, IJCAI-ECAI 2026, 2026.
DtoD () [Plug and Play]
Z. Liu and Y. Yao and P. Qian and Z. Chen and R. Liu, "Diffuse to Detect: Bi-Level Sample Rebalancing with Pseudo-Label Diffusion for Point-Supervised Infrared Small-Target Detection", International Conference on Machine Learning, ICML 2026, 2026.
WeCol ()
W. Duan, L. Ji, S. Chen, S. Zhu, J. Huang, M. Ye, "Weakly-supervised Contrastive Learning with Quantity Prompts for Moving Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2026.
FGFRNet ()
H. Luo, Q. Wang, J. He, N. Huan, "Infrared Small Target Detection via Contrastive Learning and Frequency–Gradient Feature Fusion, Expert Systems with Applications, 2026.
Lightweight Algorithms (7)
DeepPro ()
R. Li, W. An, Y. Wang, X. Ying, Y. Dai, L. Wang, M. Li, Y. Guo, L. Liu, "Probing Deep into Temporal Profile Makes the Infrared Small Target Detector Much Better", Preprint, 2025.
ILNet ()
H. Li, J. Yang, R. Wang, Y. Xu, "ILNet: Low-Level Matters for Salient Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 2025.
UAMF ()
Y. Cui, S. Li, X. Yang, G. Wang, Y. Wang, "UAMF: A Lightweight and Powerful Infrared Small Target Detection Model", Applied Soft Computing, 2026.
WSNet ()
P. Lu, Y. Luo, X. Zhang, H. Jia, S. Xia, Y. Liu, "A Wide and Shallow Network Tailored for Infrared Small Target Detection", MDPI Remote Sensing, 2026.
BissNet ()
B. Xin, Q. Mao, B. Wang, J. Zheng, Y. Zhao, C. Chen, "10K is Enough: An Ultra-Lightweight Binarized Network for Infrared Small-Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2026.
LCICNet ()
Y. Ji, E. Wang, J. Liu, "Local Cross-Channel Interaction Coverage Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 2026.
Attention Mechanisms (12)
ALCNet ()
Y. Dai, Y. Wu, F. Zhou, K. Barnard, “Attentional local contrast networks for infrared small target detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2021.
IAANet ()
K. Wang, S. Du, C. Liu, Z. Cao, "Interior Attention-Aware Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 60, pages 1-13, 2022.
AMFUNet ()
W. Chung, I. Lee, C. Park, "Lightweight Infrared Small Target Detection Network using Full-Scale Skip Connection U-Net",,IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters", Volume 20, pages 1-5, 2023.
RDIAN ()
H. Sun, J. Bai, F. Yang, X. Bai, "Receptive-Field and Direction Induced Attention Network for Infrared Dim Small Target Detection with a Large-Scale Dataset IRDST", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 61, pages 1-13, 2023.
SANet ()
J. Zhu, S. Chen, L. Li, L. Ji, “SANet: Spatial Attention Network with Global Average Contrast Learning for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, ICASSP 2023, pages 1-5, 2023.
SSCFNet ()
T. Wang, J. Zhou, Y. Jing, T. Zhang, "When Clusters Meet Shape Priors: A Synergistic Framework for Cluster Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, 2025.
C2IRST ()
T. Wang, J. Zhou, L. Wu, S. Yuan, Y. Jing, "Top-Down Coarse-to-Fine Cascade Network for High-Precision Cluster Infrared Small Target Detection”, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Volume 19, pages 6566-6580, 2026.
TAMNet ()
R. Wang, F. Wu, Y. Chen, P. Cheng, "TAMNet: Triple Adaptive Multiplexing Network for Wide-Area Infrared Small Target Detection", Neurocomputing, 2026.
PHFNet ()
L. Li, L. Guo, X. Li, X. Jiang, X. Wang, D. Jing, "PHFNet: A Parallel Hybrid Fusion Network with Linear Attention for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2026.
CS-LDRNet ()
L. Lei, Z. Chen, T. Tang, S. Gao, Y. Liu, "Channel-Specific Spatial Importance Map Generation and Lost-Detail Recovery via Asymmetric Gradient Projection for Infrared Small Target Detection", Neurocomputing, 2026.
JASTFR-Net ()
M. Wan, "JASTFRNet: A Joint Attention-based Spatio-Temporal Feature Reconstruction Network for Multi-Frame Infrared Small Target Detection", 2026.
FCCNet ()
B. Liu, Q. Liu, F. Ge, H. Li, H. Li, "FCCF-Net: A Fine-Grained Channel and Cross-encoder Fusion Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 2026.
Diffusion Mechanims (2)
Diff-Mosaic ()
Y. Shi, Y. Lin, P. Wei, X. Xian, T. Chen, L. Lin, "Diff-Mosaic: Augmenting Realistic Representations in Infrared Small Target Detection via Diffusion Prior", Preprint, 2024.
DFCHNet (1)
T. Guo and B. Zhou and F. Luo and L. Zhang, "Infrared Small Target Detection via Diverse Feature Harmonization", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, pages 1-13, 2025.
Prior Guidance (3)
FC3-Net ()
M. Zhang, K. Yue, J. Zhang, Y. Li, X. Gao, "Exploring Feature Compensation and Cross-level Correlation for Infrared Small Target Detection", ACM International Conference on Multimedia, 2022.
PQGNet ()
P. Liu, A. Li, Y. Lu, T. Zhang, M. Yang, Q. Zhou, "PQGNet: Perceptual Query Guided Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2026.
IRPNet ()
R. Yao, N. Guo, H. Zhu, K. Sun, F. Hu, X. Li, "IRPNet: Infrared Small Target Detection via RGB Prior Guidance and Physics Feature Fusion", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 64, pages 1-12, 2026.
Feature Guidance (11)
AGDFE ()
Y. Yang, Y. Xie, J. Cao, K. Yang, Attention-Guided Dual Feature Extraction Approach for Small Target Detection in Infrared Images”, The Visual Computer, 2025.
FC3-Net ()
M. Zhang, K. Yue, J. Zhang, Y. Li, X. Gao, "Exploring Feature Compensation and Cross-level Correlation for Infrared Small Target Detection", ACM International Conference on Multimedia, 2022.
HMAMFU-Net ()
I. Lee, C. Park, "Hybrid Network based on Hierarchical Multipatch Feature Encoder for Infrared Small Target Detection”, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 2024.
DNANet ()
H. Guo, N. Zhang, J. Zhang, W. Zhang, C. Sun, "Location-Guided Dense Nested Attention Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Volume 17, pages 18535-18548, 2024.
STME ()
S. Peng, L. Ji, S. Chen, W. Duan, S. Zhu, “Moving Infrared Dim and Small Target Detection by Mixed Spatio-Temporal Encoding”, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 2025.
SPIRE ()
R. Ni, B. Li, J. Chen, Y. Li, F. Ren, Y. Wang, H. Yuan, W. He, W. An, "Rethinking IRSTD: Single-Point Supervision Guided Encoder-only Framework is Enough for Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2026.
FGARNet ()
S. Peng, Y. Liao, Y. Tong, Z. Wang, H. Yang, "Infrared Small Target Detection With Frequency Guidance and Aliasing Rectification", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 64, pages 1-12, 2026.
GIDNet ()
X. Gao, J. Wu, D. Cao, H. Xu, Y. Ma, L. Li, M. Zhao, "GIDNet: Infrared Small Target Detection Network Based on Gradient-Intensity Decoupled", MDPI Remote Sensing, 2026.
FADRNet ()
"Infrared Small Target Detection based on DCT-driven Frequency Analysis and Dynamic Spatial Alignment", 2026.
Memory Guidance (1)
Tridos ()
W. Duan, L. Ji, S. Chen, S. Zhu, M. Ye, "Triple-Domain Feature Learning with Frequency-Aware Memory Enhancement for Moving Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 62, pages 1-14, 2024.
Ordinary Differential Equation Guidance (1)
OFSPNet ()
S. Xue, Y. Chen, B. Wang, G. Gao, G. Qiao, X. Zhao, "OFSPNet: ODE-Guided Fusion Network with the Same Paradigm for Infrared Small Target Detection", The Journal of Supercomputing, 2025.
Fuzzy-Logic Guidance (1)
FLINet ()
Y. Zhang, M. Qi, K. Li, X. Li, S. Zhuang, "FLINet: Fuzzy Logic for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2026.
RefineFD ()
W. Du, Y. Hu, S. Zhang, X. Yuan, Y. Li, "Refining False Detections: An Efficient Network Focused on Error-Prone Regions in Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Volume 19, pages 4358-4372, 2026.
SCR Guidance (1)
"REEM: SCR-Guided Difficulty-Aware Optimization for Infrared Small Target Detection", 2026.
Feedback Mechanisms (2)
Y. Huang, Q. Qin, A. Mao, X. Qiu, L. Xu, X. Zhang, Z. Peng, “FeedbackSTS-Det: Sparse Frames-Based Spatio-Temporal Semantic Feedback Network for Infrared Small Target Detection”, Preprint, January 2026.
DFINet ()
J. Wu, C. Luo, Z. Qiu, L. Chen, R. Ni, Y. Li, F. Huang, J. Wu, “DFINet: Dynamic Feedback Iterative Network for Infrared Small Target Detection”, Pattern Recognition, 2026.
Geometry Mechanisms (2)
RPR-Net ()
W. Gao, W. Niu, J. Tang, M. Yang, J. Zhang, X. Peng, “Point-to-Mask: From Arbitrary Point Annotations to Mask-Level Infrared Small Target Detection”, Preprint, March 2026.
LoHGNet ()
Q. Ma, Y. Xu, S. Deng, X. Li, H. Hu, "LoHGNet: Infrared Small Target Detection through Lorentz Geometric Encoding with High-Order Relation Learning", Preprint, 2026.
Mamba Mechanisms (6)
Mamba-IRSTD ()
S. Zhang, K. Wang, H. Ran, R. Deng, Z. Long, “Mamba-IRSTD: Hybrid CNN–Mamba Network with Integrated Edge Features for Infrared Small Target Detection”, Preprint, 2025.
MiM-ISTD ()
SAMamba ()
W. Xu, S. Zheng, C. Wang, Z. Zhang, C. Ren, R. Xu, S. Xu, '"SAMamba: Adaptive State Space Modeling with Hierarchical Vision for Infrared Small Target Detection", Information Fusion, 2025.
OFSPNet ()
S. Xue, Y. Chen, B. Wang, G. Gao, G. Qiao, X. Zhao,"OFSPNet: ODE-Guided Fusion Network with the Same Paradigm for Infrared Small Target Detection", The Journal of Supercomputing, 2025.
TAMamba ()
Z. Wang, M. Wang, S. Wang, S. Ji, Z. Gao, "TAMamba: Texture-Aware Mamba with Physical-Oriented Scanning for Robust Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 2026.
EAMNet ()
J. Jiang, S. Liao, X. Yang, K. Shen,"EAMNet: Efficient Adaptive Mamba Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2025.
Multi-Branch (4)
DFCHNet ()
T. Guo, B. Zhou, F. Luo, L. Zhang, "Infrared Small Target Detection via Diverse Feature Harmonization", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, pages 1-13, 2025.
MMLNet ()
Q. Li, W. Zhang, W. Lu, Q. Wang, "Multibranch Mutual-Guiding Learning for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, pages 1-10, 2025.
HDNet ()
M. Xu, C. Yu, Z. Li, H. Tang, Y. Hu, L. Nie, "HDNet: A Hybrid Domain Network With Multiscale High-Frequency Information Enhancement for Infrared Small-Target Detection, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, pages 1-15, 2025.
SDS-Net ()
T. Yue, X. Lu, J. Cai, Y. Chen, S. Chu, "SDS-Net: Shallow-Deep Synergism-Detection Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2025.
Multi-Scales/Multi-Levels Mechanisms (10)
MSHNet ()
Q. Liu, R. Liu, B. Zheng, H. Wang, Y. Fu, “Infrared Small Target Detection with Scale and Location Sensitivity”, IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, CVPR 2024, pages 490-499, 2024.
DBMSTN ()
N. Li, X. Yang, H. Zhao, “DBMSTN: A Dual Branch Multiscale Spatio-Temporal Network for Dim-Small Target Detection In Infrared Image”, Pattern Recognition, 2025.
HDNet ()
M. Xu, C. Yu, Z. Li, H. Tang, Y. Hu, L. Nie, "HDNet: A Hybrid Domain Network With Multiscale High-Frequency Information Enhancement for Infrared Small-Target Detection”, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, pages 1-15, 2025.
SDS-Net ()
T. Yue, X. Lu, J. Cai ,Y. Chen, S. Chu, "SDS-Net: Shallow-Deep Synergism-Detection Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2025.
CSAFNet ()
L. Kong, B. Yang, R. Chang, J. Luo, H. Pu, Y. Pi, "Context-Aware and Semantic-Guided Adaptive Filtering Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2026.
MSDA-Net ()
X. Li, G. Cui, "MSDA-IRSTD Multi-Scale Dynamic Attention Fusion Framework for Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2026.
MAR-UNet ()
L. Li, L. Wang, W. Wu, "MAR-UNet: Multi-scale attention residual network for infrared small target detection", Infrared Physics and Technology, 2026.
MSCA-Net ()
X. Lu and T. Yue and J. Cai and Y. Chen and C. Lv and S. Chu, "MSCA-Net:Multi-Scale Context Aggregation Network for Infrared Small Target Detection, Preprint, 2025.
MSSLNet ()
L. Guo, C. Xiao, Y. Zhang, B. Tu, "MSSLNet: Multiscale Sparse Large-Kernel Net for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Volume 23, pages 1-5, 2026.
ECMSFNet ()
X. Jin, B. Liu, L. Tang, S. Yao, P. Wang, Q. Jiang, "ECMSFNet: Real-Time Infrared Small Target Detection Network with Efficient Convolution and Multiscale Feature Fusion, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, Volume 13, No. 6, 2026.
Cross Attention Mechanisms (1)
MPCNet ()
Y. Zhang, W. Bao, Y. Yang, W. Wan, Q. Xiao, X. Zou, "MPCNet: Multiscale Perception and Cross-Attention Feature Fusion Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 64, pages 1-15, 2026.
Direction Attention Mechanisms (1)
DCONet ()
Y. Zhang, Y. Xu, J. Lyu, G. Gong, G. Chen, S. Ling, "DCONet: A Dual-Task Collaborative Optimization Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Volume 22, pages 1-5, 2025.
Motion Attention Mechanisms (3)
S2MVP ()
W. Duan, L. Ji, J. Huang, S. Chen, S. Peng, S. Zhu, "Semi-Supervised Multiview Prototype Learning With Motion Reconstruction for Moving Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, pages 1-15, 2025.
MI-DETR ()
N. Liu, J. Gao, S. Lin, Y. Kou, S. Zhang, F. Ge, Z. Pu, L. Li, G. Wang, Y. Wang, W. Hu, “MI-DETR: A Strong Baseline for Moving Infrared Small Target Detection with Bio-Inspired Motion Integration”, Preprint, March 2026.
MOCID ()
M. Zhang, Y. Ouyang, F. Gao, J. Guo, Q. Zhang, J. Zhang, "MOCID: Motion Context and Displacement Information Learning for Moving Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Volume 23, 2026.
Pyramid Attention Mechanisms (1)
HAFNet ()
Y. Zhang, W. Bao, Y. Yang, W. Wan, Q. Xiao, X. Zou, "HAFNet: Hierarchical Attention Fusion Network for Infrared Small Target Detection”, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2025.
Saliency Attention Mechanims (3)
L2SKNet ()
F. Wu, A. Liu, T. Zhang and L. Zhang and J. Luo and Z. Peng, "Saliency at the Helm: Steering Infrared Small Target Detection With Learnable Kernels", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, pages 1-14, 2025.
CSPENet ()
J. Deng, K. Li, X. Cui, J. Li, C. Long, T. Pu, Z. Pen, "CSPENet: Contour-Aware and Saliency Priors Embedding Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2024.
BDSFusion ()
S. Li, Y. Li, S. Niu, J. Yang, X. Yang, X. Yue, "BDSFusion: A Bidirectionally Driven Saliency Fusion Network for Enhancing Small Target Detection in Infrared Dual-Band Images", Information Fusion, 2025.
Semantic Attention Mechanims (7)
HoLoCoNet ()
G. Chen,Z. Wang, W. Wang, X. Li, H. Wu, "Holistic Modularization of Local Contrast in the End-to-End Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Volume 20, pages 1-5, 2023.
BAFE-Net ()
M. Xiao, Y. Zhu, Y. Zhu, B. Li, F. Zhang, H. Wang, "Background Semantics Matter: Cross-Task Feature Exchange Network for Clustered Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2024.
C. Hu, X. Dong, Y. Huang, L. Wang, L. Xu, T. Pu, Z. Peng, "SMPISD-MTPNet: Scene Semantic Prior Assisted Infrared Ship Detection using Multi-Task Perception Networks", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 62, 2024.
AuxDet ()
Y. Shi, Y. Zhu, R. He, L. Hui, M. Cai, M. Cheng, Y. Dai, "AuxDet: Auxiliary Metadata Matters for Omni-Domain Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2025.
TSNet ()
S. Ji, H. Zhang, J. Zhang, C. Fei, X. Wang, J. Liu, P. Zhang, “A Three-Stage Model for Infrared Small Target Detection with Spatial and Semantic Feature Fusion”, Expert Systems with Applications, Volume 295, January 2026.
ET-DSC ()
H. Sang, Y. Wu, Q. Liu, C. Liu, X. Chang, D. He, "Maintaining the Consistency of Small Targets on Invariant Deep Semantic Structures", Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 2026.
C. Hu, X. Dong, Y. Huang, L. Wang, L. Xu, T. Pu, Z. Peng, "SMPISD-MTPNet: Scene Semantic Prior Assisted Infrared Ship Detection using Multi-Task Perception Networks", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 62, 2024.
Wavelets Mechanims (11)
WTAPNet ()
H. He, M. Wan, Y. Xu, X. Kong, Z. Liu, Q. Chen, "WTAPNet: Wavelet Transform-Based Augmented Perception Network for Infrared Small-Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Volume 73, pages 1-17, 2024.
WaveTD ()
T. Ma, K. Cheng, T. Chai, Y. Wu, H. Zhou, "A Wavelet Steered Network for Efficient Infrared Small Target Detection", Infrared Physics and Technology, Volume 148, 2025.
DWTFreqNet ()
Q. Ma, S. Deng, B. Li, Z. Zhu, Z. Song, X. Li, "DWTFreqNet: Infrared Small Target Detection via Wavelet-Driven Frequency Matching and Saliency-Difference Optimization", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 63, pages 1-15, 2025.
IRPruneDet ()
M. Zhang, H. Yang, J. Guo, Y. Li, X. Gao, "IRPruneDet: Efficient Infrared Small target Detection via Wavelet Structure-Regularized Soft Channel Pruning", AAAI 2024, 2024.
IRPruneDeXt ()
M. Zhang, J. Feng, H. Yang, J. Guo, Y. Li, X. Gao, "IRPruneDeXt: Efficient Infrared Small Target Detection via Musical Wavelet-Regularized Channel Pruning", IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems, Volume 36, No. 12, 2025.
HaarTransNet ()
R. Fan and K. Wang and W. Li and J. Tang, "HaarTransNet: Infrared Small Target Detection Based on Feature Decoupling and Saliency Modelin", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2026.
DFAwareNet ()
K. Cheng, T. Ma, Y. Wu, Y. Wei, “State Space Model with Dynamic Frequency Cue for Infrared Small Target Detection”, Infrared Physics and Technology, 2026.
ARFC-WAHNet ()
X. Cui, J. Luo, J. Deng, K. Li, X. Qiu, Z. Peng, "ARFC-WAHNet: Adaptive Receptive Field Convolution and Wavelet-Attentive Hierarchical Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2025.
Ivan-STD ()
Y. Li, Y. Lu, H. Wu, S. Zhang, L. Lin, Y. Shi, "Ivan-ISTD: Rethinking Cross-Domain Heteroscedastic Noise Perturbations in Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 64, 2026.
PMNet ()
R. Lian, S. Deng, Z. Chen, Q. Ma, H. Hu, X. Li, "PMNet: Parametric Manifold Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", Pattern Recognition, 2026.
B) Adversarial Networks (3)
MDVsFA cGAN ()
H. Wang, L. Zhou, L. Wang, “Miss detection vs. false alarm: Adversarial learning for small object segmentation in infrared images', CVPR 2019, pages 8509–8518, 2019.
ACM ()
Y. Dai, Y. Wu, F. Zhou, K. Barnard, “Asymmetric contextual modulation for infrared small target detection", CVPR 2021, pages 950–959, 2021.
AGPCNet ()
T. Zhang, L. Li, S. Cao, T. Pu, Z. Peng, ”Attention-Guided Pyramid Context Networks for Detecting Infrared Small Target Under Complex Background", IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 2023.
C) Perception Networks (1)
S2CPNet ()
Y. Fu, S. Wang, F. Wu, J. Lyu, Z. Liu, M. Ng, "Rethinking Representations for Cross-Domain Infrared Small Target Detection: A Generalizable Perspective from the Frequency Domain", Preprint, 2026.
D) Transformers (12)
MTUNet ()
T. Wu, B. Li, Y. Luo ,Y. Wang, C. Xiao, T. Liu, "MTU-Net: Multilevel TransUNet for Space-Based Infrared Tiny Ship Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 6, pages 1-15, 2023.
SCTransNet ()
S. Yuan, H. Qin, X. Yan, N. Akhtar, A. Mian, "SCTransNet: Spatial-Channel Cross Transformer Network for Infrared Small Target Detection”, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 62, pages 1-15, 2024.
FATCNet ()
J. Yang, S. Deng, F. Zhang, A. Pan, Y. Yang, "FATCNet : Feature Adaptive Transformer and CNN for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Volume 60, No. 6, 2024.
LVNet ()
Z. Shen, S. Chen, H. Wang, T. Zhang, X. Zhang, X. Xu, X. Yang, “Low-level matters: An Efficient Hybrid Architecture for Robust Multi-Frame Infrared Small Target Detection", Preprint, 2025.
IRTransUnet ()
Y. Pi, L. Kong, R. Chang, H. Pu, M. Zhou, J. Luo, "IRTransUNet: Efficient Transformer Embedding UNet for Infrared Small Target Detection", Infrared Physics and Technology, Volume 151, 2024.
DATransNet ()
C. Hu, Y. Huang, K. Li, L. Zhang, C. Long, Y. Zhu, "DATransNet: Dynamic Attention Transformer Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 2025.
STASPPNet ()
H. Wu, X. Huang, C. He, H. Xiao, S. Luo, "Infrared Small Target Detection with Swin Transformer-Based Multiscale Atrous Spatial Pyramid Pooling Network", IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, Volume 74, 2024.
HSTNet ()
K. Li, Y. Wang, F. Han, H. Wang, Z. Xiong, Y. Tian, "HSTNet: A Hybrid Spatial-Channel Sparse Transformer Network for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Volume 23, pages 1-15, 2025.
KECS-Net ()
L. Li, L. Liu, D. Huang, S. Wang, X. Wang, Y. He, "KECS-Net: Knowledge-Embedded CSwin-UNet With Slicing-Aided Hypersegmentation for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Volume 23, pages 1-5, 2026.
KECSNet ()
L. Li, L. Liu, D. Huang, S. Wang, X. Wang, Y. He, "KECS-Net: Knowledge-Embedded CSwin-UNet With Slicing-Aided Hypersegmentation for Infrared Small Target Detection", IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Volume 23, pages 1-5, 2026.
R. Huang, J. Huang, Y. Ma, F. Fan,Y. Zhu, "Toward Extremely Efficient Infrared Small Target Detection via Universal U-Net-based Knowledge Distillation", Preprint, 2026.
SGMP ()
W. Zhang, T. Liu, T. Guan, J. Gao, "SGMP: Spatial-Semantic Guided Motion-Perception for Infrared Small Targets", Computer Vision and Image Understanding, 2026.