Transitively Consistent and Unbiased Multi-Image Registration Using Numerically Stable Transformation Synchronisation

Abstract. Transitive consistency of pairwise transformations is a desir- able property of groupwise image registration procedures. The transfor- mation synchronisation method [4] is able to retrieve transitively con- sistent pairwise transformations from pairwise transformations that are initially not transitively consistent. In the present paper, we present a numerically stable implementation of the transformation synchronisa- tion method for a ne transformations, which can deal with very large translations, such as those occurring in medical images where the coor- dinate origins may be far away from each other. By using this method in conjunction with any pairwise (a ne) image registration algorithm, a transitively consistent and unbiased groupwise image registration can be achieved. Experiments involving the average template generation from 3D brain images demonstrate that the method is more robust with re- spect to outliers and achieves higher registration accuracy compared to reference-based registration.