Abstract: A detector system locates a feature in an input signal. The input signal is applied to a multiscale filter bank which produces a corresponding set of filtered signals that are applied to a multiscale detector. A scale space tree table is produced by the detector which indicates the location in each filtered signal where the feature is possibly located. A MAP correlator examines the scale space tree table to determine which indications therein are feature locations. One-dimensional and two-dimensional embodiments are described. In addition, the design framework is disclosed for extending a one scale filter to a multiscale filter, for designing a filter bank from the multiscale filter and for designing the MAP correlator dependent on the feature being located and the chosen filter bank.