Algorithms for Fast Image Registration

The automatic determination of local similarity between two images (image registration) is one of the most fundamental problems of image processing and pattern recognition. A class of registration algorithms that are reasonably efficient and robust for translational displacement has been considered to determine relative shift between reference and search images. Stochastic image models defined on a rectangular region of support are used to determine feature vectors associated with reference and search images. A new measure, namely, coefficient of variation, is defined to take into account effects of contrast and sharpness of the images. Based upon this measure, a computationally efficient two-stage algorithm is obtained by combining the image-model based algorithm with a template matching technique. Simulation results with several synthetic and real images are presented to evaluate the performance of the algorithms.