Image matching based on oriented centroid SIFT operator

An algorithm based on oriented centroid for image matching is designed. The main contribution lies in providing a stable feature direction of pixels called oriented centroid which takes place of the main gradient direction of the traditional SIFT (Scale Invariant Feature Transform) algorithm. The computation cost required to calculate the oriented centroid based feature direction is much less than that required to estimated the main gradient direction, leading to the considerable improvement of the algorithm´s real-time performance. Experimental results verify that the algorithm does not lose performance in terms of robustness and accuracy compared with the standard SIFT algorithm.