Image warp preserving content intensity

TL;DR

This paper introduces an image warping technique that preserves the total pixel intensity, ensuring accurate quantitative analysis in applications like radiance measurement and optical density characterization.

Contribution

It proposes a novel area resampling method that guarantees intensity conservation during image warping, unlike traditional techniques.

Findings

Ensures quantitative accuracy in image deformation.

Maintains total pixel intensity after warping.

Applicable to diffeomorphic transformations.

Abstract

An accurate method for warping images is presented. Differently from most commonly used techniques, this method guarantees the conservation of the intensity of the transformed image, evaluated as the sum of its pixel values over the whole image or over corresponding transformed subregions of it. Such property is mandatory for quantitative analysis, as, for instance, when deformed images are used to assess radiances, to measure optical fluxes from light sources, or to characterize material optical densities. The proposed method enforces area resampling by decomposing each rectangular pixel in two triangles, and projecting the pixel intensity onto half pixels of the transformed image, with weights proportional to the area of overlap of the triangular half-pixels. The result is quantitatively exact, as long as the original pixel value is assumed to represent a constant image density within the pixel area, and as long as the coordinate transformation is diffeomorphic. Implementation details and possible variations of the method are discussed.