Patent ID: 7359563

Claim:
A method for correcting a series of digital images for distortions caused by movement of the imaged subject, comprising the steps of: (I) selecting a first image: (a) partitioning said first image into a series of first image windows, each of said series of first image windows containing a two-dimensional portion of said first image; (b) transforming said series of first image windows into a transform domain having transform attributes using a selected transform; (c) clustering said transformed first image windows into a series of first image clusters, where each of said transformed first image windows in a particular one of said series of first image clusters reflects similar transform attributes; (d) for each of said first image clusters, identifying subsets of said first image windows representing adjacent first image windows that, when transformed, are contained in said first image cluster, each of said subsets of said first image windows considered an first image object; and (e) for each of said first image objects, form a series of first image object descriptors; (II) selecting a second image: (a) partitioning said second image into a series of second image windows, each of said series of second image windows containing a two-dimensional portion of said second image; (b) transforming said series of second image windows into a transform domain using said selected transform; (c) clustering said transformed second image windows into a series of second image clusters, where each of said transformed second image windows in a particular one of said series of second image clusters reflects similar transform; (d) for each of said second image clusters, identifying subsets of said second image windows representing adjacent second image windows that, when transformed, are contained in said second image cluster, each of said subsets of said second image windows considered a second image object; and (e) for each of said second image objects, forming a number of second image object descriptors, each having a value; (III) for each of said first image objects, identify said second image objects which are corresponding objects, where a particular one of said second image objects is a corresponding object if at least one of said second image object descriptor's values are within a predetermined distance criteria, using a preselected metric, to said corresponding first image object descriptor's value; (IV) for each of said corresponding objects, forming an associated error vector representing the distance between a subset of said corresponding object's associated first image object's descriptors and a corresponding subset of said second image object's descriptors; and (V) generating a first corrected image from said second image, portions of said first corrected image corresponding to said corresponding objects modified by at least one component of said corresponding objects associated error vector.