Seam-line determination for image mosaicking: A technique minimizing the maximum local mismatch and the global cost

This paper presents a novel algorithm that selects seam-lines for mosaicking image patches. This technique uses Dijkstra's algorithm to find a seam-line with the minimal objective function. Since a segment of seam-line with significant mismatch, even if it is short, is more visible than a lengthy one with small differences, a direct summation of the mismatch scores is inadequate. Limiting the level of the maximum difference along a seam-line should be part of the objective in the seam-line selection process. Our technique first determines this desired level of maximum difference, then applies Dijkstra's algorithm to find the best seam-line. A quantitative measure to evaluate a seam-line is proposed. The measure is defined as the sum of a fixed number of top mismatch scores. The proposed algorithm is compared with other techniques quantitatively and visually about various types of images. (C) 2009 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Inc. (ISPRS). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.