Patent ID: 7672540

Claim:
A method for registering a sequence of images of an object, comprising: using medical imaging equipment to perform the steps of: identifying motion of the object using global template matching; obtaining local deformation of the object comprising: defining a threshold G th for a gradient map and an area of a threshold area, A th for a local template; obtaining a set of pixels, P, whose gradient magnitudes are greater than G th ; for each pixel p(x, y) within a region of interest, selecting from P its K nearest neighbors N(x, y); finding the minimum bounding box that encloses pixel p(x, y) as well as N(x, y); setting the center of the local template as the center of the bonding box; computing the area of the bounding box A N (x, y); setting the area of the local template as A(x, y)=max(A N (x, y),A th ); setting the ratio between height and width of a template; determining the height and the width of the local template for pixel (x,y); and; estimating displacement of pixel (x, y) based on its local template.