Patent ID: 7362918

Claim:
A physical computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for automatically constructing an image mosaic from a set of images of a scene, said computer executable instructions comprising: inputting a set of images of a scene; registering the set of images; comparing the set of images to identify areas of difference between the images for all images, said areas of difference representing regions of potential occlusion in each image, wherein an occlusion represents an area in any of the images that is at least partially obstructed from view by one or more objects in one or more of the other images; determining, for each image, whether regions of potential occlusion in each image represent actual regions of occlusion, or whether the regions of potential occlusion in each image represent regions of non-occlusion, by determining a level of discontinuity along an exterior border of each region of potential occlusion in each image; and creating a mosaic image by replacing at least one actual region of occlusion in one image from the set of images with corresponding regions of non-occlusion from at least one other image from the set of images of the scene.