Fast computation of warp matrices - image

Question

For a fixed and given tform, the imwarp command in the Image Processing Toolbox
B = imwarp(A,tform)
is linear with respect to A, meaning there exists some sparse matrix W, depending on tform but independent of A, such that the above can be equivalently implemented
B(:)=W*A(:)
for all A of fixed known dimensions [n,n]. My question is whether there are fast/efficient options for computing W. The matrix form is necessary when I need the transpose operation W.'*B(:), or if I need to do W\B(:) or similar linear algebraic things which I can't do directly through imwarp alone.
I know that it is possible to compute W column-by-column by doing
E=zeros(n);
W=spalloc(n^2,n^2,4*n^2);
for i=1:n^2
E(i)=1;
tmp=imwarp(E,tform);
E(i)=0;
W(:,i)=tmp(:);
end
but this is brute force and slow.
The routine FUNC2MAT is somewhat more optimal in that it uses the loop to compute/gather the sparse entry data I,J,S of each column W(:,i). Then, after the loop, it uses this to construct the overall sparse matrix. It also offers the option of using a PARFOR loop. However, this is still slower than I would like.
Can anyone suggest more speed-optimal alternatives?
EDIT:
For those uncomfortable with my claim that imwarp(A,tform) is linear w.r.t. A, I include the demo script below, which tests that the superposition property is satisfied for random input images and tform data. It can be run repeatedly to see that the nonlinearityError is always small, and easily attributable to floating point noise.
tform=affine2d(rand(3,2));
%tform=projective2d(rand(3));
fun=#(A) imwarp(A,tform,'cubic');
I1=rand(100); I2=rand(100);
c1=rand; c2=rand;
LHS=fun(c1*I1+c2*I2); %left hand side
RHS=c1*fun(I1)+c2*fun(I2); %right hand side
linearityError = norm(LHS(:)-RHS(:),'inf')

Answer 1

That's actually pretty simple:
W = sparse(B(:)/A(:));
Note that W is not unique, but this operation probably produces the most sparse result. Another way to calculate it would be
W = sparse( B(:) * pinv(A(:)) );
but that results in a much less sparse (yet still valid) result.

Answer 2

I constructed the warping matrix using the optical flow fields [u,v] and it is working well for my application
% this function computes the warping matrix
% M x N is the size of the image
function [ Fw ] = generateFwi( u,v,M,N )
Fw = zeros(M*N, M*N);
k =1;
for i=1:M
for j= 1:N
newcoord(1) = i+u(i,j);
newcoord(2) = j+v(i,j);
newi = newcoord(1);
newj = newcoord(2);
if newi >0 && newj >0
newi1x = floor(newi);
newi1y = floor(newj);
newi2x = floor(newi);
newi2y = ceil(newj);
newi3x = ceil(newi); % four nearest points to the given point
newi3y = floor(newj);
newi4x = ceil(newi);
newi4y = ceil(newj);
x1 = [newi,newj;newi1x,newi1y];
x2 = [newi,newj;newi2x,newi2y];
x3 = [newi,newj;newi3x,newi3y];
x4 = [newi,newj;newi4x,newi4y];
w1 = pdist(x1,'euclidean');
w2 = pdist(x2,'euclidean');
w3 = pdist(x3,'euclidean');
w4 = pdist(x4,'euclidean');
if ceil(newi) == floor(newi) && ceil(newj)==floor(newj) % both the new coordinates are integers
Fw(k,(newi1x-1)*N+newi1y) = 1;
else if ceil(newi) == floor(newi) % one of the new coordinates is an integer
w = w1+w2;
w1new = w1/w;
w2new = w2/w;
W = w1new*w2new;
y1coord = (newi1x-1)*N+newi1y;
y2coord = (newi2x-1)*N+newi2y;
if y1coord <= M*N && y2coord <=M*N
Fw(k,y1coord) = W/w2new;
Fw(k,y2coord) = W/w1new;
end
else if ceil(newj) == floor(newj) % one of the new coordinates is an integer
w = w1+w3;
w1 = w1/w;
w3 = w3/w;
W = w1*w3;
y1coord = (newi1x-1)*N+newi1y;
y2coord = (newi3x-1)*N+newi3y;
if y1coord <= M*N && y2coord <=M*N
Fw(k,y1coord) = W/w3;
Fw(k,y2coord) = W/w1;
end
else % both the new coordinates are not integers
w = w1+w2+w3+w4;
w1 = w1/w;
w2 = w2/w;
w3 = w3/w;
w4 = w4/w;
W = w1*w2*w3 + w2*w3*w4 + w3*w4*w1 + w4*w1*w2;
y1coord = (newi1x-1)*N+newi1y;
y2coord = (newi2x-1)*N+newi2y;
y3coord = (newi3x-1)*N+newi3y;
y4coord = (newi4x-1)*N+newi4y;
if y1coord <= M*N && y2coord <= M*N && y3coord <= M*N && y4coord <= M*N
Fw(k,y1coord) = w2*w3*w4/W;
Fw(k,y2coord) = w3*w4*w1/W;
Fw(k,y3coord) = w4*w1*w2/W;
Fw(k,y4coord) = w1*w2*w3/W;
end
end
end
end
else
Fw(k,k) = 1;
end
k=k+1;
end
end
end