Genetic algorithms for Voxel-based medical image registration

Abstract

Image registration (IR) - the task of aligning different images having a common content - is a fundamental problem in computer vision. In particular, IR is one of the key steps in medical imaging, with applications ranging from computer assisted diagnosis to computer aided therapy and surgery. As IR can be formulated as an optimization problem, a large family of metaheuristics methods can be used to improve the results obtained by classic gradient-based, continuous optimization techniques. In this work, we extend our previous intensity-based image registration (IR) technique based on a real-coded genetic algorithm with a more appropriate design. The performance evaluation of an heterogeneous group of state-of-the-art IR techniques is also extended to two experimental studies on both synthetic and real-word medical IR problems. The results prove the accuracy and applicability of our new method.