Color Image Registration and Template Matching Using Quaternion Phase Correlation

Due to mathematical limitations, conventional phase correlation technique can only be applied to grayscale images or at most complex images. A full colour image must be first converted to a grayscale image before performing the phase correlation, during which the luminance information has been wasted. In this paper, an extension of the phase correlation technique to the quaternion field , based on quaternion Fourier transforms, is proposed. This new technique called quaternion phase correlation(QPC) can make full use of the luminance as well as the chrominance information in colour images.The effectiveness of the proposed quaternion phase correlation for colour images is demonstrated through its applications in colour template matching and colour image registration .