Patent ID: 7693348

Claim:
A method of creating a horizontally registered and vertically aligned multiple-layered mosaic of images of a portion of an object, comprising the steps of: a. for each layer of detail of the portion of the object to be imaged: i. capturing the detail of the layer in a series of captured images; ii. performing pair-wise registration of the captured images of the layer into a mosaic; and iii. performing global registration of the mosaic of the layer, into an optimised mosaic layer; b. identifying at least one alignment correspondence pair, located on an image on a first optimised mosaic layer and on at least one image on a separate optimised mosaic layer; and c. iteratively: i. performing alignment and global registration of all of the optimised mosaic layers into a substantially aligned mosaic, using the identified alignment correspondence pairs associated with each optimised mosaic layer; and ii. redefining the identified alignment correspondence pairs; until the alignment of the layers is optimized.