Unconstrained automatic image matching using multiresolutional critical-point filters

Abstract—This paper proposes a novel method for matching images. The results can be used for a variety of applications: fully automatic morphing, object recognition, stereo photogrammetry, and volume rendering. Optimal mappings between the given images are computed automatically using multiresolutional nonlinear filters that extract the critical points of the images of each resolution. Parameters are set completely automatically by dynamical computation analogous to human visual systems. No prior knowledge about the objects is necessary. The matching results can be used to generate intermediate views when given two different views of objects. When used for morphing, our method automatically transforms the given images. There is no need for manually specifying the correspondence between the two images. When used for volume rendering, our method reconstructs the intermediate images between cross-sections accurately, even when the distance between them is long and the cross-sections vary widely in shape. A large number of experiments has been carried out to show the usefulness and capability of our method