Accuracy assessment of the effect of different feature descriptors on the automatic co-registration of overlapping images

This research seeks to assess the effect of different selected feature descriptors on the accuracy of an automatic image registration scheme. Three different feature descriptors were selected based on their peculiar characteristics, and implemented in the process of developing the image registration scheme. These feature descriptors (Modified Harris and Stephens corner detector (MHCD), the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and the Speeded Up Robust Feature (SURF)) were used to automatically extract the conjugate points common to the overlapping image pairs used for the registration. Random Sampling Consensus (RANSAC) algorithm was used to exclude outliers and to fit the matched correspondences, Sum of Absolute Differences (SAD) which is a correlation-based feature matching metric was used for the feature match, while projective transformation function was used for the computation of the transformation matrix (T). The obtained overall result proved that the SURF algorithm outperforms the other two feature descriptors with an accuracy measure of -0.0009 pixels, while SIFT with a cumulative signed distance of 0.0328 pixels also proved to be more accurate than MHCD with a cumulative signed distance of 0.0457 pixels. The findings affirmed the importance of choosing the right feature descriptor in the overall accuracy of an automatic image registration scheme.