Volume registration by surface point signature and mutual information maximization with applications in intra-operative MRI surgeries

Intra-operative MRI (iMRI) is a new technology that allows near real time updates of scans during a surgical procedure under the magnet. From an initial comprehensive scan, 3D volumes are obtained. During the surgery, only the portion of the organ under surgery needs to be re-scan (region of interest-ROI) in order to guide the progress of the surgery, and validate the procedure. We describe a registration approach which can be used for iMRI applications. Registration is performed through a hybrid of the surface point signature approach (SPS) and the maximization of the mutual information (MI) criterion. We demonstrate the approach on some real data