Underwater image stitching method based on optimal seam and multi-resolution fusion algorithms

Underwater high-resolution optical imaging is widely used in marine resource development, ecological monitoring, underwater archaeology, underwater search and rescue, and marine scientific research. However, small field of view (FOV) in optical imaging is ineffective for large scene mapping. Underwater image stitching aims to generate a highresolution panoramic image containing more information from a series of small-FOV and high-resolution images. This paper proposes an underwater optical image stitching method, including image alignment algorithm, optimal seam algorithm, Hue-Saturation-Value correction algorithm based on histogram matching, and multi-resolution fusion algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithms are effective for targets in different environments, and the panorama can be produced without artifacts or visible seams.