Patent ID: 7848576

Claim:
A method of operating an image matching apparatus including instructions, the method comprising: (a) causing a processor to execute the instructions to perform position correction processing to a first image and a second image, the first image including: (i) first points; and (ii) first linear components, the second image including: (i) second points; and (ii) second linear components; (b) after performing the position correction processing, causing the processor to execute the instructions to transform: (i) the first points of the first image and the second points of the second image to a curved pattern; and (ii) the first linear components of the first image and the second linear components of the second image to a plurality of overlapped curved-patterns, said transformation being based on a distance from a reference position to a shortest point in a straight line passing through a point in the image and an angle between a straight line passing though the reference position and the shortest point and a reference axis including the reference position; (c) causing the processor to execute the instructions to generate a first transformed image and a second transformed image; and (d) causing the processor to execute the instructions to match the first image and the second image based on a degree of an overlap of the patterns in the first transformed image and the second transformed image and a matching or mismatching of the patterns in the first and second transformed images.