Spline-based elastic image registration: integration of landmark errors and orientation attributes

We introduce a spline-based elastic registration scheme which is based on a well-defined minimizing functional for which the solution can be stated analytically. In this work, we consider the integration of anisotropic landmark errors as well as additional attributes at landmarks. As attributes we use orientations at landmarks and we incorporate the corresponding constraints through scalar products. With our approximation scheme it is thus possible to integrate statistical as well as geometric information as additional knowledge in elastic image registration. On the basis of synthetic as well as real tomographic images we show that this additional knowledge can significantly improve the registration result. In particular, we demonstrate that our scheme incorporating orientation attributes can preserve the shape of rigid structures (such as bone) embedded in an otherwise elastic material. This is achieved without selecting further landmarks and without a full segmentation of the rigid structures. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science (USA). All rights reserved.