Performance evaluation of 2D image registration algorithms with the numeric image registration and comparison platform

The objective of this work is to present the capabilities of the NUMERICS web platform for evaluation of the performance of image registration algorithms. The NUMERICS platform is a web accessible tool which provides access to dedicated numerical algorithms for registration and comparison of medical images (http://numerics.phys.uni-sofia.bg). The platform allows comparison of noisy medical images by means of different types of image comparison algorithms, which are based on statistical tests for outliers. The platform also allows 2D image registration with different techniques like Elastic Thin-Plate Spline registration, registration based on rigid transformations, affine transformations, as well as non-rigid image registration based on Mobius transformations. In this work we demonstrate how the platform can be used as a tool for evaluation of the quality of the image registration process. We demonstrate performance evaluation of a deformable image registration technique based on Mobius transformations. The transformations are applied with appropriate cost functions like: Mutual information, Correlation coefficient, Sum of Squared Differences. The accent is on the results provided by the platform to the user and their interpretation in the context of the performance evaluation of 2D image registration. The NUMERICS image registration and image comparison platform provides detailed statistical information about submitted image registration jobs and can be used to perform quantitative evaluation of the performance of different image registration techniques. (authors)