Landmark-based registration of medical-image data

Abstract

Image registration consists of finding the geometric (coordinate) transformation that relates two different images, source and target. Hence, when the transformation is applied to the source image, an image with the same geometry as the target one is obtained. Should both images be obtained with the same acquisition modality and illumination conditions, the transformed source image would ideally become identical to the target one. Image registration is a crucial element of computerized medicalimage analysis that is also present in other nonmedical applications of image processing and computer vision. In computer vision, for example, it appears as the socalled correspondence problem for stereo calibration [1] and for motion estimation [2], which is also of paramount importance in video coding [3]. In remote sensing, registration is needed to equalize image distortion [4], and in the broader area of geographic information systems (GIS), registration is needed to accommodate different maps in a common reference system [5].