ABSTRACT
Image synthesis is the general term for bringing together information from more than one image. Synthesis can be separated into two parts: image registration, which covers the processes required to bring images into spatial alignment, and visualization, which allows information from the aligned data sets to be viewed together. A related similarity metric is mutual information, which is maximized to achieve image registration. The number of pairs of features involved in registration can vary enormously depending on the type of landmark. The computational simplicity and the ease of evaluation means that rigid registration is very commonly used, even when a small amount of nonrigid deformation is expected. A challenging registration problem is to align microscope slides prepared for histopathological examination with, for example, magnetic resonance images. A developing area for the use of image registration is in radiotherapy. Registration of images to the matching physical location in the patient is necessary for image guided procedures to take place.
