Histograms method: a new concept of DOA finding

In telecommunication, radar, and underwater acoustic fields, a wide range of emerging applications encounter non-Gaussian signals. A novel method of target detection and direction finding, based upon source histogram analysis, is therefore proposed. It provides an increased number of localized sources for phased arrays with a limited number of antennas. Working on the geometrical properties of the joint probability density functions of the sources, it requires a low cost implementation, and is available for both linear and 2D arrays. First results obtained on synthetic signals are presented; they validate the theoretical results in terms of detection/counting.