Mosaicking of Aerial Photographic Maps Via Seams Defined by Bottleneck Shortest Paths

Abstract

The Cartographic Institute of Catalonia (ICC) produces commercial aerial photographic maps of locations in Europe and South America. These maps are often so large that it is necessary to produce one map from two or more photographs, which are combined two at a time in a process called mosaicking. The objective is to make the final map appear to be the product of a single photograph by producing a seam that is invisible even to an expert cartographer. The problem and a variation are modeled via bottleneck shortest paths and cycles. Optimization algorithms are developed for both, and the first has been implemented with demonstrable impact on the company. The second represents a new class of constrained shortest cycle problems.