Dense non-rigid motion estimation in sequences of medical images using differential constraints

Serge Benayoun (1) , Nicholas Ayache (2)

1 Alcatel Alsthom Recherche
2 EPIDAURE - Medical imaging and robotics

We describe a new method for computing the displacement vector field in time sequences of 2D or 3D images (4D data). The method is energy-minimizing on the space of correspondence functions; the energy is split into two terms, with one term matching differential singularities in the images, and the other constraining the regularity of the field. In order to reduce the computational time of the motion estimation, we use an adaptive image mesh, the resolution of which depends on the value of the gradient intensity. We solve numerically the minimization problem with the finite element method which gives a continuous approximation of the solution. We present experimental results on synthetic data and on medical images and we show how to use these results for analyzing cardiac deformations.

Mots clés: registration; matching; deformations; motion tracking

Domaines: Imagerie médicale; Modélisation et simulation; Imagerie; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]

Serge Benayoun, Nicholas Ayache. Dense non-rigid motion estimation in sequences of medical images using differential constraints. International Journal of Computer Vision, 1998, 26 (1), pp.25--40. ⟨10.1023/A:1007932523504⟩. ⟨inria-00615084⟩