title: Riemannian elasticity: a statistical regularization framework for non-linear registration.
abstract: In inter-subject registration, one often lacks a good model of the transformation variability to choose the optimal regularization. Some works attempt to model the variability in a statistical way, but the re-introduction in a registration algorithm is not easy. In this paper, we interpret the elastic energy as the distance of the Green-St Venant strain tensor to the identity, which reflects the deviation of the local deformation from a rigid transformation. By changing the Euclidean metric for a more suitable Riemannian one, we define a consistent statistical framework to quantify the amount of deformation. In particular, the mean and the covariance matrix of the strain tensor can be consistently and efficiently computed from a population of non-linear transformations. These statistics are then used as parameters in a Mahalanobis distance to measure the statistical deviation from the observed variability, giving a new regularization criterion that we called the statistical Riemannian elasticity. This new criterion is able to handle anisotropic deformations and is inverse-consistent. Preliminary results show that it can be quite easily implemented in a non-rigid registration algorithms.
authors: INRIA Sophia - Projet Epidaure, 2004 Route des Lucioles BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis, France. Xavier.Pennec@sophia.inria.fr
authors: X
authors: X
authors: Pennec
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Stefanescu
authors: V
authors: V
authors: Arsigny
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Fillard
authors: N
authors: N
authors: Ayache