METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CORRELATING A BODY WITH AN IMAGE OF THE BODY

The present invention provides a system and process for correlating points on a spatial body to corresponding points on a data-base body formed from pre-acquired images of the spatial body. The system and process involves matching the spatial points with the corresponding data-base points using relative positional information between the spatial points and the data-base points. Symmetric false matches are detected and discarded by fitting the spatial points and data-base points to a first and second closed body, respectively, and comparing the orientation of the spatial points and the data-base points projected onto the closed bodies. In a preferred embodiment, the orientations of the spatial points and data-base points are compared by calculating, with respect to a matched spatial point, the longitudinal coordinates of the spatial points neighbouring the matched spatial point and calculating, with respect to the matched data-base point, the longitudinal co-ordinates of the data-base points neighbouring the matched data-base point, and comparing the difference in longitude between the points. If the difference in longitude of the spatial points corresponds to the difference in longitude of the data-base points, the match of the matched spatial point to the matched data-base point will be validated. Otherwise, the match will be considered a symmetric false match and discarded. Once at least three spatial points have been matched to corresponding data-base points, and the matches have been confirmed not to be false matches, a registration procedure is performed registering the spatial body to the data-base body by calculating a transformation mapping using the three matched pairs.