Patent ID: 8086043

Claim:
A method for correlating two images comprising: using a processor to perform a luminance-based correlation analysis on each image, wherein the luminance-based correlation uses luminance-based phase plane correlation (PPC) and is computed using the equation: PPC ⁡ ( I 1 , I 2 ) = F - 1 ⁡ ( F ⁡ ( I 1 ) × F ⁡ ( I 2 ) *  F ⁡ ( I 1 ) × F ⁡ ( I 2 ) *  ) , where I 1 and I 2 are the respective images, F is a Fourier Transform, and F(I 2 )* is a complex conjugate of F(I 2 ); using a processor to perform a gradient-based correlation analysis on each image, wherein the gradient-based correlation uses gradient-based PPC and is computed by the equation: PPC ⁡ ( w 1 , w 2 ) = F - 1 ⁡ ( F ⁡ ( w 1 ) × F ⁡ ( w 2 ) *  F ⁡ ( w 1 ) × F ⁡ ( w 2 ) *  ) , where w 1 and w 2 represent the gradient field from each image and F(w 2 )* is a complex conjugate of F(w 2 ); and using a processor to combine the luminance-based correlation and the gradient-based correlation to generate a structure correlation, wherein the structural correlation is determined using the equation: SPPC=PPC( I 1 ,I 2 )×PPC( w 1 ,w 2 ).