Detection of Outer Rotations on 3D-Vector Fields with Iterative Geometric Correlation

Correlation is a common technique for the detection of shifts. Its generalization to the multidimensional geometric correlation in Clifford algebras has proven a useful tool for color image processing, because it additionally contains information about rotational misalignment. In this paper we prove that applying the geometric correlation iteratively can detect the outer rotational misalignment for arbitrary three-dimensional vector fields. Thus, it develops a foundation applicable for image registration and pattern matching. Based on the theoretical work we have developed a new algorithm and tested it on some principle examples.