We address the alignment of a group of images with simultaneous
registration. Therefore, we provide further insights
into a recently introduced class of multivariate similarity
measures referred to as accumulated pair-wise estimates
(APE) and derive efficient optimization methods for
it. More specifically, we show a strict mathematical deduction
of APE from a maximum-likelihood framework and establish
a connection to the congealing framework. This is
only possible after an extension of the congealing framework
with neighborhood information. Moreover, we address
the increased computational complexity of simultaneous
registration by deriving efficient gradient-based optimization
strategies for APE: Gauß-Newton and the efficient
second-order minimization (ESM). We present next to SSD,
the usage of the intrinsically non-squared similarity measures
NCC, CR, and MI, in this least-squares optimization
framework. Finally, we evaluate the performance of the optimization
strate...