A method for fast automated microscope image stitching

Image stitching is an important technology to produce a panorama or larger image by combining several images with overlapped areas. In many biomedical researches, image stitching is highly desirable to acquire a panoramic image which represents large areas of certain structures or whole sections, while retaining microscopic resolution. In this study, we develop a fast normal light microscope image stitching algorithm based on feature extraction. At first, an algorithm of scale-space reconstruction of speeded-up robust features (SURF) was proposed to extract features from the images to be stitched with a short time and higher repeatability. Then, the histogram equalization (HE) method was employed to preprocess the images to enhance their contrast for extracting more features. Thirdly, the rough overlapping zones of the images preprocessed were calculated by phase correlation, and the improved SURF was used to extract the image features in the rough overlapping areas. Fourthly, the features were corresponded by matching algorithm and the transformation parameters were estimated, then the images were blended seamlessly. Finally, this procedure was applied to stitch normal light microscope images to verify its validity. Our experimental results demonstrate that the improved SURF algorithm is very robust to viewpoint, illumination, blur, rotation and zoom of the images and our method is able to stitch microscope images automatically with high precision and high speed. Also, the method proposed in this paper is applicable to registration and stitching of common images as well as stitching the microscope images in the field of virtual microscope for the purpose of observing, exchanging, saving, and establishing a database of microscope images.

► We proposed a method for fast automated microscope image stitching.
► An improved SURF was proposed and used to extract features from the images.
► The method can support many kinds of image formats and microscopes.