A "composite signal generator" automatically combines two or more copies
of a signal to produce a composite that is better than the individual
copies. For example, given two or more input images of a scene captured
from approximately the same viewpoint, the composite signal generator
automatically produces a composite image having reduced or eliminated
areas of occlusion with respect to any occlusions existing in the input
images. First, the input images are registered using conventional image
registration techniques. Differences between the registered images are
then used to identify regions of potential occlusion in one or more of
the images. A determination of which image is actually occluded is made
by identifying which image has a larger discontinuity along a border of
the potentially occluded regions. A composite image is then created by
choosing one image and mosaicing parts from the other images where it is
occluded and they are not.