A hybrid registration and analysis technique for sequential complex images

An image registration algorithm combining image analysis and signal processing techniques is applied to a sequence of complex images. The frequency-domain registration technique described here is faster than the conventional spatial domain correlation techniques and does not suffer from the nonuniqueness of solution. The specific technique used in this work involves power spectrum for rotation correction and power cepstrum for translation correction. Furthermore, a comparison of another frequency-domain translation correction technique namely phase correlation and power cepstrum technique reveals clear superiority of the latter method for noisy images and for specific application namely registration of sequential complex images. The general procedure of employing feature extraction techniques prior to registration for simplifying the image and subsequent registration of images based on power spectrum and 2-D cepstrum techniques provide an unambiguous, accurate and fast method of comparison for a broad range of sequential complex images.