Morphological image compositing

Image mosaicking can be defined as the registration of two or more images that are then combined into a single image. Once the images have been registered to a common coordinate system, the problem amounts to the definition of a selection rule to output a unique value for all those pixels that are present in more than one image. This process is known as image compositing. In this paper, we propose a compositing procedure based on mathematical morphology and its marker-controlled segmentation paradigm. Its scope is to position seams along salient image structures so as to diminish their visibility in the output mosaic even in the absence of radiometric corrections or blending procedures. We also show that it is suited to the seamless minimization of undesirable transient objects occurring in the regions where two or more images overlap. The proposed methodology and algorithms are illustrated for the composition of satellite images minimizing cloud cover.