[denormalfloat]

Do the seams need to be continuous? Intuitively it feels like the seam being carved out doesn't need to be made from pixels touching each other. What if the best seam has a slope of about 1/3 (i.e 1 vertical pixel for ever 3 horizontal pixels)?

[akdas]

In the first paper, the authors discuss what happens if you take the lowest energy pixel from each seam. The problem is that visual coherence is not maintained, because there is no connection between the removed pixel.

What you're talking about--expanding the number of pixels the seam can move from row to row--is certainly possible. This will require more computational resources, as each seam can continue from five different seams (or more if you choose to widen your slope parameter). And, I'm not sure you'd get enough visual coherence from these types of seams.

That said, the best way for to know for certain to is to try it out!