Landmark-based non-rigid registration via graph cuts

This paper presents an approach based on graph cuts initially used for motion segmentation that is being applied to the non-rigid registration problem. The main contribution of our method is the formulation of landmarks in the graph cut minimization framework. In the graph cut method, we add a penalty cost based on landmarks to the data energy. In the presence of a landmark, we adjust the T-link weights to cut strategic links. Our formulation also allows the spread of a landmark influence to its neighborhood. We first show with synthetic images that minimization with graph cuts can indeed be used for non-rigid registration and show how landmarks can guide the minimization process towards a customized solution. We later use this method with real images and show how landmarks can successfully guide the registration of a coronary angiogram.