Parameter-Free Elastic Deformation Approach for 2D and 3D Registration Using Prescribed Displacements

A parameter-free approach for non-rigid image registration based on elasticity theory is presented. In contrast to traditional physically-based numerical registration methods, no forces have to be computed from image data to drive the elastic deformation. Instead, displacements obtained with the help of mapping boundary structures in the source and target image are incorporated as hard constraints into elastic image deformation. As a consequence, our approach does not contain any parameters of the deformation model such as elastic constants. The approach guarantees the exact correspondence of boundary structures in the images assuming that correct input data are available. The implemented incremental method allows to cope with large deformations. The theoretical background, the finite element discretization of the elastic model, and experimental results for 2D and 3D synthetic as well as real medical images are presented.     

Non-Rigid Multi-Modal Image Registration Using Cross-Cumulative Residual Entropy

In this paper we present a new approach for the non-rigid registration of multi-modality images. Our approach is based on an information theoretic measure called the cumulative residual entropy (CRE), which is a measure of entropy defined using cumulative distributions. Cross-CRE between two images to be registered is defined and maximized over the space of smooth and unknown non-rigid transformations. For efficient and robust computation of the non-rigid deformations, a tri-cubic B-spline based representation of the deformation function is used. The key strengths of combining CCRE with the tri-cubic B-spline representation in addressing the non-rigid registration problem are that, not only do we achieve the robustness due to the nature of the CCRE measure, we also achieve computational efficiency in estimating the non-rigid registration. The salient features of our algorithm are: (i) it accommodates images to be registered of varying contrast+brightness, (ii) faster convergence speed compared to other information theory-based measures used for non-rigid registration in literature, (iii) analytic computation of the gradient of CCRE with respect to the non-rigid registration parameters to achieve efficient and accurate registration, (iv) it is well suited for situations where the source and the target images have field of views with large non-overlapping regions. We demonstrate these strengths via experiments on synthesized and real image data.     

Image fusion enhancement of deformable human structures using a two-stage warping-deformable strategy: A content-based image retrieval consideration

In medical image registration and content-based image retrieval, the rigid transformation model is not adequate for anatomical structures that are elastic or deformable. For human structures such as abdomen, registration would involve global features such as abdominal wall as well as local target organs such as liver or spleen. A general non-rigid registration may not be sufficient to produce image matching of both global and local structures. In this study, a warping-deformable model is proposed to register images of such structures. This model uses a two-stage strategy for image registration of abdomen. In the first stage, the global-deformable transformation is used to register the global wall. The warping-transformation is used in second stage to register the liver. There is a good match of images using the proposed method (mean similarity index = 0.73545).The image matching correlation coefficients calculated from eight pairs of CT and MR images of abdomen indicates that the warping-deformable transformation gives better matching of images than those without transformation (p < 0.001, paired t-test). This study has established a model for image registration of deformable structures. This is particularly important for data mining of image content retrieval for structures which are non-rigid. The result obtained is very promising but further clinical evaluation is needed     

Efficient multi-modal image registration using local-frequency maps

Fusing of multi-modal data involves automatically estimating the coordinate transformation required to align the multi-modal image data sets. Most existing methods in literature are not fast enough for practical use (taking more than 30 min to 1 h for estimating non-rigid deformations). We propose a very fast algorithm based on matching local-frequency image representations, which naturally allows for processing the data at different scales or resolutions, a very desirable property from a computational efficiency view point. For the rigid motion case, this algorithm involves minimizing – over all rigid transformations – the expectation of the squared difference between the local-frequency representations of the source and target images. In the non-rigid deformations case, we propose to approximate the non-rigid motion by piece-wise rigid motions and use a novel and fast PDE-based morphing technique that estimates this non-rigid alignment. We present implementation results for synthesized and real (rigid) misalignments between CT and MR brain scans. In both the cases, we validate our results against ground truth registrations which for the former case are known and for the latter are obtained from manual registration performed by an expert. Currently, these manual registrations are used in daily clinical practice. Finally, we present examples of non-rigid registration between T1-weighted MR and T2-weighted MR brain images wherein validation is only qualitatively achieved. Our algorithm's performance is comparable to the results obtained from algorithms based on mutual information in the context of accuracy of estimated rigid transforms but is much faster in computational speed. Accepted: 13 November 2001     

An efficient volumetric method for non-rigid registration

We propose a novel and efficient volumetric method for registering 3D shapes with non-rigid deformations. Our method uses a signed distance field to represent the 3D input shapes and registers them by minimizing the difference between their distance fields. With the assumptions that the sampling points in each cell of the object volume follow the same rigid transformation, and the transformations of the sampling cells vary smoothly inside the object volume, a two-step method is used for the non-rigid registration. The first step is the locally rigid registration, which minimizes the difference between the source and target distance fields of the sampling cells. The second step is the globally non-rigid registration, which minimizes the difference between the transformations of adjacent cells. In just a few iterations, our method rapidly converges for the registration. We tested our method on several datasets, and the experimental results demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of our method.     

基于 Nyström 低阶近似和谱特征的图像非刚性配准

图像非刚性配准在计算机视觉和医学图像有着重要的作用.然而存在的非刚性配准算法对严重扭曲变形的图像配准精度和效率都比较低.针对该问题,提出基于Nystrm低阶近似和谱特征的图像非刚性配准算法.算法首先提取像素的谱特征,并将谱特征与空间特征、灰度特征融合形成具有扭曲不变性的全局谱特征; 然后在微分同胚配准的框架内使用全局谱匹配,确保算法产生的变形场具有光滑性、可逆性、可微性,以提高配准的精度;其次采用Nystrm抽样方法,随机抽取拉普拉斯矩阵的行与列,低阶逼近该矩阵,降低高维矩阵谱分解的时间,从而提高配准的效率;最后提出基于小波分解的多分辨率图像配准方法,进一步提高配准的精度和效率.理论分析和实验结果均表明,该算法的配准精度和配准效率都有明显的提高.     

有约束Patch-Match框架下的非刚体匹配算法

目的 非刚性物体进行匹配时,往往需要对图像中存在的非刚性形变目标进行快速精确的配准,进而实现对图像的后续处理和分析,实现快速而准确的非刚体匹配显得尤为重要。针对传统特征点匹配方法在非刚性物体匹配中准确性差的问题,本文提出了一种基于DAISY算子和有约束Patch-Match的非刚体密集匹配算法。方法 首先对参考图像和待匹配图像生成DAISY特征描述子,其次对两幅图像进行超像素分割,形成相互邻接但没有重叠的超像素块结构,并以其为单元,计算初始位置上对应每一个像素的DAISY特征算子聚合代价。然后,采用Patch-Match算法对整幅图像进行传播和变异,在变异过程中,通过图像预处理和分析得到的先验知识对位置标签的变异窗口进行局部空间约束,使得每个像素的位置标签在该空间范围内随机更新,计算新的聚合代价,保留代价较小的位置标签,重复迭代此过程,直到聚合代价不发生变化或者达到最大迭代次数为止。结果 实验选取了标准数据集、10幅分别由TFDS（the trucking fault dynamic image detection system）线阵列相机和框幅式相机采集的包含非刚体的图像进行匹配,均取得了较好的匹配效果,经验证,本文方法的匹配精度为86%,误匹配点的平均匹配误差为5个像素左右,是传统基于SIFT特征光流匹配方法误差的一半,并且本文采用的DAISY算子在特征提取速度上是Dense SIFT（dense scale invariant feature transform）特征提取算法的2~3倍,大大提升了图像匹配的效率。结论 本文提出了一种非刚体密集匹配算法,针对非刚体变化的不确定性采用密集特征点进行最优化搜索匹配。本文算法对包含小范围非刚性变化的图像匹配上具有较好的适应性,且匹配精度高,视觉效果好,鲁棒性强。     

Deformable Registration of Digital Images

is paper proposes a novel elastic model and presents a deformable registration method based on the model.The method registers images without the need to extract reatures from the images,and therefore works directly on grey-level images.A new similarity metric is given on which the formation of external forces is based.The registration method,taking the coarse-to-fine strategy,constructs external forces in larger scales for the first few iterations to rely more on global evidence,and ther in smaller scales for later iterations to allow local refinements.The stiffness of the elastic body decreases as the process proceeds.To make it widely applicable,the method is not restricted to any type of transformation.The variations between images are thought as general free-form deformations.Because the elastic model designed is linearized,it can be solved very efficiently with high accuracy.The method has been successfully tested on MRI images.It will certainly find other uses such as matching time-varying sequences of pictures for motion analysis,fitting templates into images for non-rigid object recognition,matching stereo images for shape recovery,etc.     

A fast and fully automatic registration approach based on point features for multi-source remote-sensing images

Automatic registration of multi-source remote-sensing images is a difficult task as it must deal with the varying illuminations and resolutions of the images, different perspectives and the local deformations within the images. This paper proposes a fully automatic and fast non-rigid image registration technique that addresses those issues. The proposed technique performs a pre-registration process that coarsely aligns the input image to the reference image by automatically detecting their matching points by using the scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) method and an affine transformation model. Once the coarse registration is completed, it performs a fine-scale registration process based on a piecewise linear transformation technique using feature points that are detected by the Harris corner detector. The registration process firstly finds in succession, tie point pairs between the input and the reference image by detecting Harris corners and applying a cross-matching strategy based on a wavelet pyramid for a fast search speed. Tie point pairs with large errors are pruned by an error-checking step. The input image is then rectified by using triangulated irregular networks (TINs) to deal with irregular local deformations caused by the fluctuation of the terrain. For each triangular facet of the TIN, affine transformations are estimated and applied for rectification. Experiments with Quickbird, SPOT5, SPOT4, TM remote-sensing images of the Hangzhou area in China demonstrate the efficiency and the accuracy of the proposed technique for multi-source remote-sensing image registration.     

基于兴趣边缘优化的壁画影像与激光扫描数据非刚性配准

将壁画影像与激光扫描数据配准,并进行定位和纠正在壁画的数字化保护中有非常重要的意义.本文以激光扫描数据强度信息为中介,提出了一种基于兴趣边缘优化的壁画影像与激光扫描数据的非刚性配准方法:由激光扫描数据生成强度影像,以壁画彩色影像的兴趣边缘和强度影像的梯度场作为配准基元,在影像刚性配准基础上,对每条兴趣边缘进行优化配准,然后以优化后边缘的特征点为控制点,构造影像之间的非刚性变换模型,完成壁画影像与激光扫描数据的配准.实验结果表明本方法在不同数据中都能获得较高的配准精度.     

Fair relay selection in decode-and-forward cooperation based on outage priority

The opportunistic cooperation schemes,where only the "best" relay is selected to forward the message,have been widely investigated recently for their good performance in terms of outage probability.However,the unfair selections of relays may cause unbalance power consumptions among relays,which reduces the lifetime of energy constrained networks.In this paper,we introduce a novel concept of outage priority based fairness(OPF),aiming at improving the selection fairness among relays appropriately without outage performance deterioration.Then,a cooperation scheme is proposed to meet this concept,and corresponding theoretical analysis is also provided.Afterward,based on OPF,the achievable upper bound of the fairness is derived,and an optimal cross-layer designed scheme is also provided to achieve the bound.Numerical simulations are carried out finally,which not only validate the theoretical analysis,but also show that taking advantages of the proposed schemes,the fairness among all relays,as well as the network lifetime,can be greatly improved without any loss of outage performance,especially in high SNR regime.     

联合弯曲能量和标志点对应约束的非刚性医学图像配准

由于缺乏图像几何空间约束,基于互信息的非刚性医学图像配准常常产生不合理的形变。提出一种联合弯曲能量和标志点对应约束的非刚性医学图像配准方法,在互信息配准目标函数中添加弯曲能量惩罚和对应标志点间欧氏距离2个正则项,约束医学图像软组织不合理形变。脑部MRI、头颈部CT、胸部CBCT影像配准实验结果表明,该方法可有效提高配准质量。     

基于改进的Zernike矩的局部描述符与图割离散优化的非刚性多模态脑部图像配准

针对脑部图像中存在噪声和强度失真时，基于结构信息的方法不能同时准确提取图像强度信息和边缘、纹理特征，并且连续优化计算复杂度相对较高的问题，根据图像的结构信息，提出了基于改进Zernike距的局部描述符（IZMLD）和图割（GC）离散优化的非刚性多模态脑部图像配准方法。首先，将图像配准问题看成是马尔可夫随机场（MRF）的离散标签问题，并且构造能量函数，两个能量项分别由位移矢量场的像素相似性和平滑性组成。其次，采用变形矢量场的一阶导数作为平滑项，用来惩罚相邻像素间有较大变化的位移标签；用基于IZMLD计算的相似性测度作为数据项，用来表示像素相似性。然后，在局部邻域中用图像块的Zernike矩来分别计算参考图像和浮动图像的自相似性并构造有效的局部描述符，把描述符之间的绝对误差和（SAD）作为相似性测度。最后，将整个能量函数离散化，并且使用GC的扩展优化算法求最小值。实验结果表明，与基于结构表示的熵图像的误差平方和（ESSD）、模态独立邻域描述符（MIND）和随机二阶熵图像（SSOEI）的配准方法相比，所提算法目标配准误差的均值分别下降了18.78%、10.26%和8.89%，并且比连续优化算法缩短了约20 s的配准时间。所提算法实现了在图像存在噪声和强度失真时的高效精确配准。     

A hierarchical parametric algorithm for deformable multimodal image registration

Image fusion is of utmost importance for many applications in image analysis. Particularly in medical imaging, images of different modalities are necessary because they provide complementary information that must be merged for an optimal use. The fusion of these images, which can be achieved through a registration process, makes it possible to superimpose all available information on the same frame. In many cases, a rigid transformation is sufficient to align correctly the images. However, there are cases where a non-rigid transformation is needed: geometrical distortions present in one image, non-rigid motion, etc. The purpose of this paper is to propose a generic method to account for these deformations in case of multimodal images. We have applied the algorithm in the particular context of 3D medical images and present results on simulated and real data.     

Joint photometric and geometric image registration in the total least square sense

This paper presents a novel robust image alignment technique that performs joint geometric and photometric registration in the total least square (TLS) sense. Therefore, we employ the total least square metric instead of the ordinary least square (OLS) metric, which is commonly used in the literature. While the OLS model is sufficient to tackle geometric registration problems, it gives no mutually consistent estimates when dealing with photometric deformations. By introducing a new TLS model, we obtain mutually consistent parameters. Experimental results show that our method is indeed more consistent and accurate in presence of noise compared to existing joint registration algorithms.     

基于B样条的弹性点配准方法

为了更好地进行图像弹性点的配准,提出了一种利用Hausdorff距离测度的弹性点配准方法。该方法以B样条为弹性形变模型,并具有较强的抵御杂点影响的能力。在此基础上又提出了序贯更新策略,即通过将源图像和控制点网格进行分块的方法来序贯更新弹性配准参数,从而进一步提高了算法的运算速度。为验证该方法的配准效果,采用该方法进行了合成图像、手写字体和脑部MRI图像的弹性配准实验。实验结果表明,该方法在基于特征的弹性配准应用中具有较好的使用效果。     

Feature-based registration of histopathology images with different stains: An application for computerized follicular lymphoma prognosis

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is the second most common type of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Manual histological grading of FL is subject to remarkable inter- and intra-reader variations. A promising approach to grading is the development of a computer-assisted system that improves consistency and precision. Correlating information from adjacent slides with different stain types requires establishing spatial correspondences between the digitized section pair through a precise non-rigid image registration. However, the dissimilar appearances of the different stain types challenges existing registration methods.This study proposes a method for the automatic non-rigid registration of histological section images with different stain types. This method is based on matching high level features that are representative of small anatomical structures. This choice of feature provides a rich matching environment, but also results in a high mismatch probability. Matching confidence is increased by establishing local groups of coherent features through geometric reasoning. The proposed method is validated on a set of FL images representing different disease stages. Statistical analysis demonstrates that given a proper feature set the accuracy of automatic registration is comparable to manual registration.     

A topology preserving non-rigid registration algorithm with integration shape knowledge to segment brain subcortical structures from MRI images

A new non-rigid registration method combining image intensity and a priori shape knowledge of the objects in the image is proposed. This method, based on optical flow theory, uses a topology correction strategy to prevent topological changes of the deformed objects and the a priori shape knowledge to keep the object shapes during the deformation process. Advantages of the method over classical intensity based non-rigid registration are that it can improve the registration precision with the a priori knowledge and allows to segment objects at the same time, especially efficient in the case of segmenting adjacent objects having similar intensities. The proposed algorithm is applied to segment brain subcortical structures from 15 real brain MRI images and evaluated by comparing with ground truths. The obtained results show the efficiency and robustness of our method.     

基于多通道稀疏编码的非刚性多模态医学图像配准

针对稀疏编码相似性测度在非刚性医学图像配准中对灰度偏移场具有较好的鲁棒性,但只适用于单模态医学图像配准的问题,提出基于多通道稀疏编码的非刚性多模态医学图像配准方法。该方法将多模态配准问题视为一个多通道配准问题来解决,每个模态在一个单独的通道下运行;首先对待配准的两幅图像分别进行合成和正则化,然后划分通道和图像块,使用K奇异值分解（K-SVD）算法训练每个通道中的图像块得到分析字典和稀疏系数,并对每个通道进行加权求和,采用多层P样条自由变换模型来模拟非刚性几何形变,结合梯度下降法优化目标函数。实验结果表明,与局部互信息、多通道局部方差和残差复杂性（MCLVRC）、多通道稀疏诱导的相似性测度（MCSISM）、多通道Rank Induced相似性测度（MCRISM）多模态相似性测度相比,均方根误差分别下降了30.86%、22.24%、26.84%和16.49%。所提方法能够有效克服多模态医学图像配准中灰度偏移场对配准的影响,提高配准的精度和鲁棒性。     

Fingerprint image mosaicking by recursive ridge mapping.

To obtain a large fingerprint image from several small partial images, mosaicking of fingerprint images has been recently researched. However, existing approaches cannot provide accurate transformations for mosaics when it comes to aligning images because of the plastic distortion that may occur due to the nonuniform contact between a finger and a sensor or the deficiency of the correspondences in the images. In this paper, we propose a new scheme for mosaicking fingerprint images, which iteratively matches ridges to overcome the deficiency of the correspondences and compensates for the amount of plastic distortion between two partial images by using a thin-plate spline model. The proposed method also effectively eliminates erroneous correspondences and decides how well the transformation is estimated by calculating the registration error with a normalized distance map. The proposed method consists of three phases: feature extraction, transform estimation, and mosaicking. Transform is initially estimated with matched minutia and the ridges attached to them. Unpaired ridges in the overlapping area between two images are iteratively matched by minimizing the registration error, which consists of the ridge matching error and the inverse consistency error. During the estimation, erroneous correspondences are eliminated by considering the geometric relationship between the correspondences and checking if the registration error is minimized or not. In our experiments, the proposed method was compared with three existing methods in terms of registration accuracy, image quality, minutia extraction rate, processing time, reject to fuse rate, and verification performance. The average registration error of the proposed method was less than three pixels, and the maximum error was not more than seven pixels. In a verification test, the equal error rate was reduced from 10% to 2.7% when five images were combined by our proposed method. The proposed method was superior to other compared methods in terms of registration accuracy, image quality, minutia extraction rate, and verification.