Highly repeatable feature point detection in images using laplacian graph centrality

Abstract

Image registration is an indispensible task required in many image processing applications, which geometrically aligns multiple images of a scene, with differences caused due to time, viewpoint or by heterogeneous sensors. Feature-based registration algorithms are more robust to handle complex geometrical and intensity distortions when compared to area-based techniques. A set of appropriate geometrically invariant features forms the cornerstone for a feature-based registration framework. Feature point or interest point detectors extract salient structures such as points, lines, curves, regions, edges, or objects from the images. A novel interest point detector is presented in this paper. This algorithm computes interest points in a grayscale image by utilizing a graph centrality measure derived from a local image network. This approach exhibits superior repeatability in images where large photometric and geometric variations are present. The practical utility of this highly repeatable feature detector is evident from the simulation results.