Asymmetric gradient-based image alignment

A new method for template-based image alignment is presented in this paper. A gradient-based optimization of motion compensated error difference is addressed to solve the image alignment problem. Its novelty lies in the minimized error, which considers the bi-directional compensation of the reference template and the current image onto each other in a constrained asymmetrical fashion. The proposed approach is shown to be a generalization of previous state-of-the art gradient-based methods. An experimental evaluation is provided to show how the new method outperforms the former in presence of noisy images, and to give some insights into its properties.