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Computing hierarchical curve-skeletons of 3D objects

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Abstract

A curve-skeleton of a 3D object is a stick-like figure or centerline representation of that object. It is used for diverse applications, including virtual colonoscopy and animation. In this paper, we introduce the concept of hierarchical curve-skeletons and describe a general and robust methodology that computes a family of increasingly detailed curve-skeletons. The algorithm is based upon computing a repulsive force field over a discretization of the 3D object and using topological characteristics of the resulting vector field, such as critical points and critical curves, to extract the curve-skeleton. We demonstrate this method on many different types of 3D objects (volumetric, polygonal and scattered point sets) and discuss various extensions of this approach.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, 08855, USA

    Nicu D. Cornea, Deborah Silver, Xiaosong Yuan & Raman Balasubramanian

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  1. Nicu D. Cornea
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  2. Deborah Silver
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  3. Xiaosong Yuan
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  4. Raman Balasubramanian
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Correspondence to Nicu D. Cornea.

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Cornea, N., Silver, D., Yuan, X. et al. Computing hierarchical curve-skeletons of 3D objects. Visual Comput 21, 945–955 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-005-0308-0

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