Method for digital image stitching and apparatus for performing the same

A method for aligning digital images to be stitched together, comprising:

• displaying at least two non-contiguous portions of a first image in a display of a digital imaging device;
• identifying corner features of the first image present within an overlap region intervening between the at least two non-contiguous portions of the first image;
• identifying corner features of a live version of a second image within the overlap region, wherein the live version of the second image is visible in the display in conjunction with the at least two non-contiguous portions of the first image, the second image representing an extension of the first image;
• identifying alignment of corner features of the first and second images within the overlap region;
• and
• indicating identified alignment of corner features of the first and second images within the overlap region.

A digital imaging device, comprising:

• an image capture device configured to capture a first image and a second image in an electronic format, the first image and the second image having an amount of overlap;
• a display panel configured to display the first image and the second image to be captured by the image capture device;
• and
• a graphics controller including,
• image alignment circuitry defined to retain a display of at least two non-contiguous portions of the first image in the display panel to facilitate alignment of the second image,
• corner detection circuitry defined to identify corner features of the first image present within an overlap region intervening between the at least two non-contiguous portions of the first image, the corner detection circuitry further defined to identify corner features of the second image that are present within the overlap region,
• corner matching circuitry defined to identify alignment of corner features of the first and second images within the overlap region, and
• image stitching circuitry defined to use the identified alignment of corner features of the first and second images within the overlap region to translate the second image relative to the first image and digitally combine the translated second image with the first image.

A graphics controller, comprising:

• image alignment circuitry defined to display portions of a first image in a display panel during alignment of a second image in the display panel;
• corner detection circuitry defined to identify corner features of the first and second images within a region intervening between the portions of the first image to be displayed in the display panel;
• corner matching circuitry defined to recognize alignment of identified corner features of the first and second images;
• and
• image stitching circuitry defined to use the recognized alignment of identified corner features of the first and second images to translate the second image relative to the first image and digitally combine the translated second image with the first image.