Patent ID: 9692991
Date: 2017-06-27
CPC Classifications: G06T,H04N

Claim:
1. An electronic method for aligning a near infrared (NIR) image with a visible image in a system including a NIR imaging sensor and a visible imaging sensor, the method comprising: receiving a NIR image from the NIR imaging sensor, the NIR image being devoid of visible image data; receiving a visible image from the visible imaging sensor; matching pixels in the NIR image with pixels in the visible image on a pixel-by-pixel basis to form a plurality of matched pixel pairs based at least in part on an association of NIR pixel image data with visible pixel image data for each matched pixel pair; calculating a pixel disparity, a disparity-similarity, and a color-similarity for each matched pixel pair; assigning weights to each matched pixel pair based at least in part on the calculated pixel disparity, the calculated disparity-similarity, and the calculated color-similarity for each matched pixel pair; and aligning the NIR image with the visible image based at least in part on the assigned weights that exceed a predetermined threshold.