A multiresolution spline with application to image mosaics

We define a multiresolution spline technique for combining two or more images into a larger image mosaic. In this procedure, the images to be splined are first decomposed into a set of band-pass filtered component images. Next, the component images in each spatial frequency band are assembled into a corresponding band-pass mosaic. In this step, component images are joined using a weighted average within a transition zone which is proportional in size to the wave lengths represented in the band. Finally, these band-pass mosaic images are summed to obtain the desired image mosaic. In this way, the spline is matched to the scale of features within the images themselves. When coarse features occur near borders, these are blended gradually over a relatively large distance without blurring or otherwise degrading finer image details in the neighborhood of the border.