A fast B-spline pseudo-inversion algorithm for consistent image registration

Recently, the concept of consistent image registration has been introduced to refer to a set of algorithms that estimate both the direct and inverse deformation together, that is, they exchange the roles of the target and the scene images alternatively; it has been demonstrated that this technique improves the registration accuracy, and that the biological significance of the obtained deformations is also improved. When dealing with free form deformations, the inversion of the transformations obtained becomes computationally intensive. In this paper, we suggest the parametrization of such deformations by means of a cubic B-spline, and its approximated inversion using a highly efficient algorithm. The results show that the consistency constraint notably improves the registration accuracy, especially in cases of a heavy initial misregistration, with very little computational overload. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.