1. A method for detecting an object in an image by processing signals corresponding to the image, the method comprising: utilizing a processor to: process a template of the object to derive a representation of the template comprising a plurality of line segments distributed among a plurality of regions of the object, the plurality of line segments being defined in a vertical or horizontal direction, remove at least one of the object regions from the representation of the template to obtain a less complex representation of the template, compare the less complex representation of the template with regions of an image, and determine a similarity measure (S(x)) based on the comparisons between the less complex representation of the template and the image regions, wherein the similarity measure is determined using a statistical measure based on sums of pixel values and sums of squared pixel values of line segments of the image corresponding to each of the line segments of the less complex representation of the template.