A new image registration technique with free boundary constraints: Application to mammography

Abstract

In this paper, a new image-matching mathematical model is presented for the mammogram registration. In a variational framework, an energy minimization problem is formulated and a multigrid resolution algorithm is designed. The model focuses on the matching of regions of interest. It also combines several constraints which are both intensity and segmentation based.A new feature of our model is combining region matching and segmentation by formulation of the energy minimization problem with free boundary conditions. Moreover, the energy has a new registration constraint. The performances of models with and without free boundary are compared on a simulated mammogram pair. It is shown that the new model with free boundary is more robust to initialization inaccuracies than the one without. The interest of the new model for the real mammogram registration is also illustrated.