Image Morphing Using Shape Interpolation and MLS Deformation

This paper presents an image morphing technique which is based on shape interpolation and moving least squares deformation. In the algorithm, the features of the source and target images are at first manually specified using open or closed curves（called as "feature curves"） and then the source image is automatically transformed into the target image in a natural way. In order to retain the original appearance and properties in the in-between objects, a barycenter-based shape model is designed to represent the visual appearance of a set of curves. Upon this model, a two-level shape interpolation is introduced to generate a sequence of intermediate feature curves which is appearance-preserving. During morphing, the intermediate feature curves are used to align the geometric features of the source and target images via MLS deformation. Consequently, the original appearance and properties of the objects can be effectively preserved in the intermediate images. We have applied our approach to a variety of examples to demonstrate its versatility and visual accuracy.