Transport Based Image Morphing with Intensity Modulation

We present a generalized optimal transport model in which the mass-preserving constraint for the L-Wasserstein distance is relaxed by introducing a source term in the continuity equation. The source term is also incorporated in the path energy by means of its squared L-norm in time of a functional with linear growth in space. This extension of the original transport model enables local density modulations, which is a desirable feature in applications such as image warping and blending. A key advantage of the use of a functional with linear growth in space is that it allows for singular sources and sinks, which can be supported on points or lines. On a technical level, the L-norm in time ensures a disintegration of the source in time, which we use to obtain the well-posedness of the model and the existence of geodesic paths. The numerical discretization is based on the proximal splitting approach [18] and selected numerical test cases show the potential of the proposed approach. Furthermore, the approach is applied to the warping and blending of textures.