Subpixel Registration Directly from the Phase Difference

This paper proposes a new approach to subpixel registration, under local/global shifts or rotation, using the phase-difference matrix.We establish the exact relationship between the continuous and the discrete phase difference of two shifted images and show that their discrete phase difference is a 2-dimensional sawtooth signal. As a result, the exact shifts or rotations can be determined to subpixel or subangle accuracy by counting the number of cycles of the phase-difference matrix along the frequency axes. The subpixel portion is represented by a fraction of a cycle corresponding to the noninteger part of the shift or rotation. The rotation angle is estimated by applying our method using a polar coordinate system. The problem is formulated as an overdetermined system of equations and is solved by imposing a regularity constraint. The tradeoff for imposing the constraint is determined by exploiting the rank constraint leading to a closed-form expression for the optimal regularization parameter.