Spatial transformation of motion and deformation fields using nonrigid registration

In this paper, we present a technique that can be used to transform the motion or deformation fields defined in the coordinate system of one subject into the coordinate system of another subject. Such a transformation accounts for the differences in the coordinate systems of the two subjects due to misalignment and size/shape variation, enabling the motion or deformation of each of the subjects to be directly quantitatively and qualitatively compared. The field transformation is performed by using a nonrigid registration algorithm to determine the intersubject coordinate system mapping from the first subject to the second subject. This fixes the relationship between the coordinate systems of the two subjects, and allows us to recover the deformation/motion vectors of the second subject for each corresponding point in the first subject. Since these vectors are still aligned with the coordinate system of the second subject, the inverse of the intersubject coordinate mapping is required to transform these vectors into the coordinate system of the first subject, and we approximate this inverse using a numerical line integral method. The accuracy of our numerical inversion technique is demonstrated using a synthetic example, after which we present applications of our method to sequences of cardiac and brain images.     

Super-resolution based on fast registration and maximum a posteriori reconstruction.

In this paper, we propose a maximum a posteriori ramework for the super-resolution problem, i.e., reconstructing high-resolution images from shifted, rotated, low-resolution degraded observations. The main contributions of this work are two; first, the use of a new locally adaptive edge preserving prior for the super-resolution problem. Second an efficient two-step reconstruction methodology that includes first an initial registration using only the low-resolution degraded observations. This is followed by a fast iterative algorithm implemented in the discrete Fourier transform domain in which the restoration, interpolation and the registration subtasks of this problem are preformed simultaneously. We present examples with both synthetic and real data that demonstrate the advantages of the proposed framework.     

Super-resolution reconstruction using spatio-temporal filtering

It has been known for some time that temporal dependence (motion) plays a key role in the super-resolution (SR) reconstruction of a single frame (or sequence of frames). While the impact of global time-invariant translations is relatively well known, the general motion case has not been studied in detail. In this paper, we discuss SR reconstruction for both motion models from a frequency-domain point of view. A noniterative algorithm for SR reconstruction is presented using spatio-temporal filtering. The concepts of motion-compensated windows and sinc interpolation kernels are utilized, resulting in a finite impulse response (FIR) filter realization. In the simulations, we assume a priori knowledge of the motion (optical flow), which is commonly done throughout much of the SR reconstruction literature. The proposed process is localized in nature, and this enables the selective reconstruction of desired parts of a particular frame or sequence of frames.     

基于Minkowski距离最小化的多模态图像配准

本文基于R.Gan等人提出的图像配准方法,利用变量间的Minkowski不等式关系理论,引入全新的联合灰度分布间Minkowski距离(Minkowski Distance,MD),以此距离作为相似度进行多模态图像配准.经分析,因Minkowski距离的引入,使得本文的优化目标函数可保持良好的全局凸性和光滑性,优化求解可以有效地克服局部极值问题,配准成功率较R.Gan等人的配准方法有显著提高.大量实验表明,本文方法的配准精度可以与经典的基于互信息量的配准方法一比高低.     

Super-resolution reconstruction of compressed video using transform-domain statistics

Considerable attention has been directed to the problem of producing high-resolution video and still images from multiple low-resolution images. This multiframe reconstruction, also known as super-resolution reconstruction, is beginning to be applied to compressed video. Super-resolution techniques that have been designed for raw (i.e., uncompressed) video may not be effective when applied to compressed video because they do not incorporate the compression process into their models. The compression process introduces quantization error, which is the dominant source of error in some cases. In this paper, we propose a stochastic framework where quantization information as well as other statistical information about additive noise and image prior can be utilized effectively.     

多值压缩编码孔径超分辨率成像方法

针对近期提出的基于压缩感知(CS,compressed sensing)理论的压缩编码成像方法在重建后引入较多类似于噪声的伪影(artitacts)问题,为了使压缩编码成像方法获得更好成像质量的图像,本文提出一种改进的压缩编码成像方法。本文方法将多值模板(MVM)代替二值模板来增强编码质量,并利用自适应全变分(TV,total variation)去噪方法去除重建后的高分辨率图像的伪影。实验结果表明,这种方法很好地改进了压缩编码孔径(CCA)的成像质量,并且大幅提高了图像的信噪比(SNR)。     

Image registration using Fermat transforms

Binary boundary maps are obtained by edge detection, then their relative translation is determined by conventional cross-correlation computed by the Fermat transform. Use of boundary maps emphasises edges and sharp discontinuities, while rejecting disturbances related to nonuniform illumination, thus avoiding the costly normalisation step. Use of integer arithmetic allows significant savings in computation     

基于随机模糊神经网络的传感器配准方法

配准不精确是多传感器跟踪系统的一个主要问题。提出了基于神经网络的配准方 法。把随机模糊神经网络用于配准的优点是无需事先知道系统误差特性,所以适用于所有不 同类型传感器。该解决方案的主要优点是同样的网络可以通过训练解决不同类型的系统 误差。     

Document registration using projective geometry

A technique for extracting filled-in information in form documents is presented. The transformation that is required to convert a filled-in form to match the master (blank form) is derived using results from projective geometry. Experimental studies with several forms indicate the proposed technique to be accurate and robust.     

Super-resolution texture synthesis using stochastic PAR/NL model

Super-resolution texture synthesis using a locally-adaptive stochastic signal model is investigated in this work. The 2D random texture is modeled by a piecewise auto-regressive (PAR) process whose parameters are determined by a non-local (NL) training procedure and, consequently, it is called the PAR/NL model. Unlike previous work that applies the NL scheme to image pixels directly, the proposed PAR/NL scheme applies the NL scheme to PAR model parameters by assuming that these parameters are self-similar. Furthermore, we describe a probabilistic method for PAR/NL model computation using the maximum a posteriori (MAP) and the expectation–maximization (EM) principles. Experimental results are given to demonstrate the synthesis performance of the proposed PAR/NL technique, which can boost texture detail and eliminate the blurring artifact perceptually.     

采用双网络结构的压缩视频超分辨率重建

在实际应用中,为了节省带宽和方便存储,图像和视频通常被下采样和压缩,而降质的图像与视频无法满足人们的实际需求。针对这一问题,采用了一种双网络结构的超分辨率重建方法,首先建立下采视频与压缩后的低分辨率视频的映射关系,然后建立质量增强的压缩视频与原始视频的映射关系,最终在输出端可以得到质量提升的视频帧。在网络中,采用密集残差块来提取压缩视频中丰富的局部分层特征,并结合全局残差学习恢复视频中的高频信息。在压缩环节,采用高性能视频编码来验证所提算法的有效性。实验结果表明,相比于主流的视频编码标准和先进的超分辨率重建算法,所提方法能有效提升编码视频的率失真性能。     

Video Super-resolution using Edge-based Optical Flow and Intensity Prediction

Full-image based motion prediction is widely used in video super-resolution (VSR) that results outstanding outputs with arbitrary scenes but costs huge time complexity. In this paper, we propose an edge-based motion and intensity prediction scheme to reduce the computation cost while maintain good enough quality simultaneously. The key point of reducing computation cost is to focus on extracted edges rather than the whole frame when finding motion vectors (optical flow) of the video sequence in accordance with human vision system (HVS). Bi-directional optical flow is usually adopted to increase the prediction accuracy but it also increase the computation time. Here we propose to obtain the backward flow from foregoing forward flow prediction which effectively save the heavy load. We perform a series of experiments and comparisons between existed VSR methods and our proposed edge-based method with different sequences and upscaling factors. The results reveal that our proposed scheme can successfully keep the super-resolved sequence quality and get about 4x speed up in computation time.     

Fast generation of digitally reconstructed radiographs using attenuation fields with application to 2D-3D image registration

Generation of digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) is computationally expensive and is typically the rate-limiting step in the execution time of intensity-based two-dimensional to three-dimensional (2D-3D) registration algorithms. We address this computational issue by extending the technique of light field rendering from the computer graphics community. The extension of light fields, which we call attenuation fields (AFs), allows most of the DRR computation to be performed in a preprocessing step; after this precomputation step, DRRs can be generated substantially faster than with conventional ray casting. We derive expressions for the physical sizes of the two planes of an AF necessary to generate DRRs for a given X-ray camera geometry and all possible object motion within a specified range. Because an AF is a ray-based data structure, it is substantially more memory efficient than a huge table of precomputed DRRs because it eliminates the redundancy of replicated rays. Nonetheless, an AF can require substantial memory, which we address by compressing it using vector quantization. We compare DRRs generated using AFs (AF-DRRs) to those generated using ray casting (RC-DRRs) for a typical C-arm geometry and computed tomography images of several anatomic regions. They are quantitatively very similar: the median peak signal-to-noise ratio of AF-DRRs versus RC-DRRs is greater than 43 dB in all cases. We perform intensity-based 2D-3D registration using AF-DRRs and RC-DRRs and evaluate registration accuracy using gold-standard clinical spine image data from four patients. The registration accuracy and robustness of the two methods is virtually identical whereas the execution speed using AF-DRRs is an order of magnitude faster.     

Medical image registration using mutual information

Analysis of multispectral or multitemporal images requires proper geometric alignment of the images to compare corresponding regions in each image volume. Retrospective three-dimensional alignment or registration of multimodal medical images based on features intrinsic to the image data itself is complicated by their different photometric properties, by the complexity of the anatomical objects in the scene and by the large variety of clinical applications in which registration is involved. While the accuracy of registration approaches based on matching of anatomical landmarks or object surfaces suffers from segmentation errors, voxel-based approaches consider all voxels in the image without the need for segmentation. The recent introduction of the criterion of maximization of mutual information, a basic concept from information theory, has proven to be a breakthrough in the field. While solutions for intrapatient affine registration based on this concept are already commercially available, current research in the field focuses on interpatient nonrigid matching.     

Landmark-based elastic registration using approximating thin-platesplines

We consider elastic image registration based on a set of corresponding anatomical point landmarks and approximating thin-plate splines. This approach is an extension of the original interpolating thin-plate spline approach and allows to take into account landmark localization errors. The extension is important for clinical applications since landmark extraction is always prone to error. Our approach is based on a minimizing functional and can cope with isotropic as well as anisotropic landmark errors. In particular, in the latter case it is possible to include different types of landmarks, e.g., unique point landmarks as well as arbitrary edge points. Also, the scheme is general with respect to the image dimension and the order of smoothness of the underlying functional. Optimal affine transformations as well as interpolating thin-plate splines are special cases of this scheme. To localize landmarks we use a semi-automatic approach which is based on three-dimensional (3-D) differential operators. Experimental results are presented for two-dimensional as well as 3-D tomographic images of the human brain.     

基于边界距离场互信息的图像配准方法

基于图像边界平均Hausdorff距离的配准方法实现简单、速度快、有较大应用价值,但对图像边界不完全对应的情况配准效果不好。提出了一种以图像边界距离场互信息作为相似度函数的图像配准方法,以参考边界的距离场和浮动二值边界为两个离散概率分布,将其互信息作为相似度函数进行配准。实验结果表明,该算法对图像内容完全一致和内容不完全对应的图像均可得到良好的配准结果。     

Image registration using the Walsh transform.

This paper presents a new algorithm which can be used to register images of the same or different modalities, e.g., images with multiple channels, such as X-rays, temperature or elevation, or simply images of different spectral bands. In particular, a correlation-based scheme is used, but instead of gray values, it correlates numbers formulated by different combinations of the extracted local Walsh coefficients of the images. Each image patch is expanded in terms of Walsh basis functions. Each Walsh basis function can be thought of as measuring a different aspect of local structure, e.g., horizontal edge, corner, etc. The coefficients of the expansion, therefore, can be thought of as dense local features, estimating at each point the degree of presence of, for example, a horizontal edge, a corner with contrast of a certain type, etc. These coefficients are normalized and used as digits in a chosen number system which allows one to create a unique number for each type of local structure. The choice of the basis of the number system allows one to give different emphasis to different types of local feature (e.g., corners versus edges), and, thus, the method we present forms a unified framework in terms of which several feature matching methods may be interpreted. The algorithm is compared with wavelet and contour based approaches, using simulated and real images. The two images are assumed to differ from each other by a rotation and a translation only.     

Intensity-based image registration using robust correlation coefficients

The ordinary sample correlation coefficient is a popular similarity measure for aligning images from the same or similar modalities. However, this measure can be sensitive to the presence of "outlier" objects that appear in one image but not the other, such as surgical instruments, the patient table, etc., which can lead to biased registrations. This paper describes an intensity-based image registration technique that uses a robust correlation coefficient as a similarity measure. Relative to the ordinary sample correlation coefficient, the proposed similarity measure reduces the influence of outliers. We also compared the performance of the proposed method with the mutual information-based method. The robust correlation-based method should be useful for image registration in radiotherapy (KeV to MeV X-ray images) and image-guided surgery applications. We have investigated the properties of the proposed method by theoretical analysis, computer simulations, a phantom experiment, and with functional magnetic resonance imaging data.     

Surface-constrained volumetric brain registration using harmonic mappings

In order to compare anatomical and functional brain imaging data across subjects, the images must first be registered to a common coordinate system in which anatomical features are aligned. Intensity-based volume registration methods can align subcortical structures well, but the variability in sulcal folding patterns typically results in misalignment of the cortical surface. Conversely, surface-based registration using sulcal features can produce excellent cortical alignment but the mapping between brains is restricted to the cortical surface. Here we describe a method for volumetric registration that also produces an accurate one-to-one point correspondence between cortical surfaces. This is achieved by first parameterizing and aligning the cortical surfaces using sulcal landmarks. We then use a constrained harmonic mapping to extend this surface correspondence to the entire cortical volume. Finally, this mapping is refined using an intensity-based warp. We demonstrate the utility of the method by applying it to T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRIs). We evaluate the performance of our proposed method relative to existing methods that use only intensity information; for this comparison we compute the intersubject alignment of expert-labeled subcortical structures after registration.