Performance Comparison of Feature Generation Algorithms for Mosaic Photoacoustic Microscopy

Mosaic imaging is a computer vision process that is used for merging multiple overlapping imaging patches into a wide-field-of-view image. To achieve a wide-field-of-view photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) image, the limitations of the scan range of PAM require a merging process, such as marking the location of patches or merging overlapping areas between adjacent images. By using the mosaic imaging process, PAM shows a larger field view of targets and preserves the quality of the spatial resolution. As an essential process in mosaic imaging, various feature generation methods have been used to estimate pairs of image locations. In this study, various feature generation algorithms were applied and analyzed using a high-resolution mouse ear PAM image dataset to achieve and optimize a mosaic imaging process for wide-field PAM imaging. We compared the performance of traditional and deep learning feature generation algorithms by estimating the processing time, the number of matches, good matching ratio, and matching efficiency. The analytic results indicate the successful implementation of wide-field PAM images, realized by applying suitable methods to the mosaic PAM imaging process.