Wavelet Compressed PCA Models for Real-Time Image Registration in Augmented Reality Applications

The use of augmented reality (AR) has shown great promise in enhancing medical training and diagnostics via interactive simulations. This paper presents a novel method to perform accurate and inexpensive image registration (IR) utilizing a pre-constructed database of reference objects in conjunction with a principal component analysis (PCA) model. In addition, a wavelet compression algorithm is utilized to enhance the speed of the registration process. The proposed method is used to perform registration of a virtual 3D heart model based on tracking of an asymmetric reference object. The results indicate that the accuracy of the method is dependent upon the extent of asymmetry of the reference object which required inclusion of higher order principal components in the model. A key advantage of the presented IR technique is the absence of a restart mechanism required by the existing approaches while allowing up to six orders of magnitude compression of the modeled image space. The results demonstrate that the method is computationally inexpensive and thus suitable for real-time augmented reality implementation.