Assume that there are 5 images and that after computing the overlap area fractions the alignment vector stores the following data image index i image index j overlap fraction 1) 1 2 0.1 2) 1 3 0.1 3) 1 4 0.1 4) 1 5 0.5 5) 2 3 0.1 6) 2 4 0.6 7) 2 5 0.1 8) 3 4 0.7 9) 3 5 0.6 10) 4 5 0.9 After sorting into decreasing overlap fraction by Alignment class (Second stage) image index i image index j overlap fraction 1) 4 5 0.9 2) 3 4 0.7 3) 2 4 0.6 4) 3 5 0.6 5) 1 5 0.5 6) 1 2 0.1 7) 1 3 0.1 8) 1 4 0.1 9) 2 3 0.1 10) 2 5 0.1 This will then give the order in which two images will be attempted to be aligned.