Combining image and mesh-registration

After playing with the setup outlined in the last post, the following procedure seems to work best:

• align meshes by landmarks
• create 3D-images from superimposed meshes (using vtkMesh2Image from RvtkStatismo).
• register images using ANTsR (RANTs)
• apply deformation to reference mesh
• deform this already pretty good (in most cases) approximation onto the actual target mesh using AmbergRegister from mesheR.

The last step makes sure that the moving mesh is as close as possible to the target while maintaining the mesh’s integrity. The last step also allows to cut down on ImageRegistration accuracy, saving a couple of minutes (which is beneficial when matching a couple of hundred surfaces).

Timing:

The whole registration setup takes approximately 5 minutes per specimen (saved 5 minutes by letting AmbergRegister do the fine registration, as this only takes 30 seconds per specimen), which is reasonable (so I can register my data over the weekend).