Non-rigid registration of serial section images by blending transforms for 3D reconstruction

In this research, we propose a novel registration method for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction from serial section images. 3D reconstructed data from serial section images provides structural information with high resolution. However, there are three problems in 3D reconstruction: non-rigid deformation, tissue discontinuity, and accumulation of scale change. To solve the non-rigid deformation, we propose a novel non-rigid registration method using blending rigid transforms. To avoid the tissue discontinuity, we propose a target image selection method using the criterion based on the blending of transforms. To solve the scale change of tissue, we propose a scale adjustment method using the tissue area before and after registration. The experimental results demonstrate that our method can represent non-rigid deformation with a small number of control points, and is robust to a variation in staining. The results also demonstrate that our target selection method avoids tissue discontinuity and our scale adjustment reduces scale change.