@string{jmiv="Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision"}
@Article{Domokos-Kato2015,
  author =	 {Csaba Domokos and Zoltan Kato},
  title =	 {Affine Shape Alignment Using Covariant Gaussian
                  Densities: A Direct Solution},
  journal =	 jmiv,
  year =	 2015,
  volume =	 51,
  number =	 3,
  pages =	 {385-399},
  month =	 mar,
  abstract =	 {We propose a novel approach for the estimation of 2D
                  affine transformations aligning a planar shape and
                  its distorted observation. The exact transformation
                  is obtained as a least-squares solution of a linear
                  system of equations constructed by fitting Gaussian
                  densities to the shapes which preserve the effect of
                  the unknown transformation. In the case of compound
                  shapes, we also propose a robust and efficient
                  numerical scheme achieving near real-time
                  performance. The method has been tested on synthetic
                  as well as on real images. Its robustness in the
                  case of segmentation errors, missing data, and
                  modelling error has also been demonstrated. The
                  proposed method does not require point
                  correspondences nor the solution of complex
                  optimization problems, has linear time complexity
                  and provides an exact solution regardless of the
                  magnitude of deformation.  }
}