Medical Image Registration: Theory, Algorithm, and Case Studies in Surgical Simulation, Chest Cancer, and Multiple Sclerosis - Biomedical Image Analysis - page 28

Figure 1.9: Examples of spin images generated for the surface of a statue. The
darker the pixel, the higher the number of points projected into this location.

1.5.1.5 The “Surface Signature” Surface Registration

The surface signature algorithm captures the 3D curvature information of any
free-form surface and encodes it into a 2D image corresponding to a certain
point on the surface. This image is unique for this point and is independent from
the object translation or orientation in space.
The process starts by identifying special points on the surface. These points
are called Important points due to the information they carry. Then an image
capturing the surface curvature information seen from each important point,
is formed. This image is called the Surface Signature at this point because it is
almost unique for each point on the surface. Surface registration is then per-
formed by matching signature images of different surfaces and hence finding