We present an image recognition method to distinguish targets with cat-eye effect from the dynamic background based on target shape and modulation frequency. Original image sequences to be processed are acquired through an imaging mechanism that utilizes a pulsed laser as active illuminator and an industrial camera as detection device. There are two criterions to recognize a target: one exploits shape priors and the other is the active illuminator’s modulation frequency. The feasibility of the proposed method and its superiority over the single criterion method have been demonstrated by practical experiments.