Feature-based matching for automatic image registration

For merging information extracted from satellite images with a GIS, the images are usually registered on a map by manually identifying a number of points on the satellite image whose coordinates are measured on the map. In this paper, we describe a method to solve the registration problem automatically. First, we develop a general scheme to extract features (edges) in the image and to match them with the corresponding features on the map. We take advantage of the multi-spectral resolution of the satellite image to perform the matching with selective features, for example with water bodies, cultural features or roads. A scale space approach is chosen for solving the problem of vastly different image scales. The paper concludes with experimental results. -Authors