Generalization of deformable registration in Riemannian Sobolev spaces

In this work we discuss the generalized treatment of the deformable registration problem in Sobolev spaces. We extend previous approaches in two points: 1) by employing a general energy model which includes a regularization term, and 2) by changing the notion of distance in the Sobolev space by problem-dependent Riemannian metrics. The actual choice of the metric is such that it has a preconditioning effect on the problem, it is applicable to arbitrary similarity measures, and features a simple implementation. The experiments demonstrate an improvement in convergence and runtime by several orders of magnitude in comparison to semi-implicit gradient flows in L2. This translates to increased accuracy in practical scenarios. Furthermore, the proposed generalization establishes a theoretical link between gradient flow in Sobolev spaces and elastic registration methods.