Edge-Enhanced Optimal Seamline Detection for Orthoimage Mosaicking

In this letter, we propose a novel algorithm to detect the optimal seamline by using the edge-enhanced energy function for orthoimage mosaicking. First, we generate the energy cost map by using traditional intensity and gradient difference. Then, to ensure that the detected optimal seamlines avoid crossing the obvious objects, the energy map is enhanced in the regions of valid edge segments around the obvious objects. The edge segments are separately detected from input images, and the invalid edge segments are removed by using texture complexity index, image difference, and consistency constraint. Finally, we detect the optimal seamline from this edge-enhanced energy cost map via graph cuts. Experimental results on several groups of challenging orthoimages show that the proposed algorithm is capable of creating high-quality seamlines for orthoimage mosaicking and outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms and the commercial software based on the visual comparison and statistical evaluation.