A Fast Globally Optimal Seamline Detection Method for High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images

Seamline detection is one of the most important issues in mosaicking high-resolution remote sensing images (HRRSIs). However, it is difficult to make a balance between efficiency and accuracy. On that account, a shortest matrix path-based dynamic programming (SMP-DP) algorithm is proposed to find the optimal seamline for HRRSI mosaicking. First, a pixel cost matrix defined by intensity difference, gradient similarity, and geometric difference is constructed in the overlapping area. Second, the least average path cost from the starting pixel to each pixel is calculated and the SMP-DP algorithm is applied to find the optimal path. Experimental results on HRRSI prove that the proposed method detects high-quality seamline and crosses much fewer objects with the highest computational efficiency, compared with the state-of-the-art method and commercial software.