Auto-correlation and cross-correlation have been used in signal and image processing for many years, but have only recently been applied to color images. Since the correlation of individual signals and gray-scale images yields a measure of structural similarity, in each of their dimensions,
the correlation of
C. E. Moxey, T. A. Ell, S. J. Sangwine, "Vector Correlation of Color Images" in Proc. IS&T CGIV 2002 First European Conf. on Colour in Graphics, Imaging, and Vision, 2002, pp 343 - 347, https://doi.org/10.2352/CGIV.2002.1.1.art00072