Extracting lines of curvature from noisy point clouds

We present a robust framework for extracting lines of curvature from point clouds. First, we show a novel approach to denoising the input point cloud using robust statistical estimates of surface normal and curvature which automatically rejects outliers and corrects points by energy minimization. Then the lines of curvature are constructed on the point cloud with controllable density. Our approach is applicable to surfaces of arbitrary genus, with or without boundaries, and is statistically robust to noise and outliers while preserving sharp surface features. We show our approach to be effective over a range of synthetic and real-world input datasets with varying amounts of noise and outliers. The extraction of curvature information can benefit many applications in CAD, computer vision and graphics for point cloud shape analysis, recognition and segmentation. Here, we show the possibility of using the lines of curvature for feature-preserving mesh construction directly from noisy point clouds.     

Curvature-Domain Shape Processing

We propose a framework for 3D geometry processing that provides direct access to surface curvature to facilitate advanced shape editing, filtering, and synthesis algorithms. The central idea is to map a given surface to the curvature domain by evaluating its principle curvatures, apply filtering and editing operations to the curvature distribution, and reconstruct the resulting surface using an optimization approach. Our system allows the user to prescribe arbitrary principle curvature values anywhere on the surface. The optimization solves a nonlinear least‐squares problem to find the surface that best matches the desired target curvatures while preserving important properties of the original shape. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this processing metaphor with several applications, including anisotropic smoothing, feature enhancement, and multi‐scale curvature editing.     

Interactive modeling of complex geometric details based on empirical mode decomposition for multi-scale 3D shapes

In this paper we develop an interactive modeling system for complex geometric details transformation based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) on multi-scale 3D shapes. Given two models, we aim to transfer geometric details from one model to another one in an interactive manner. Taking full advantages of the multi-scale representation computed via EMD, different-scale geometric details can be transferred individually or in a concerted way, which makes our algorithm much more flexible than cut-and-paste and cloning based methods in transferring geometry details. In this process, the target surface with new transferred details could be generated by a mesh reconstruction method widely used in Laplacian surface editing. With the original positions of target surface serving as the soft constraints, the overall shape of the target model will be fully preserved. Our method can also support real-time continuous details transfer. Compared with state-of-the-art algorithms, our method provides an easier-to-use modeling tool and produces varied modeling results. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our modeling tool with various applications, such as detail transfer and enrichment, model reuse and recreation, and detail recovery for shape completion.     

曲面处理的曲率域能量优化方法研究*

鉴于曲率在几何处理中的重要性,提出了一种基于曲率域的三维几何处理方法,提供了便于曲面形状编辑、过滤及合成的几何工具。对于给定曲面,估计其主曲率,过滤和编辑其曲率分布,完成曲面空间域到曲率域的映射。采用能量优化处理方法对非线性最小二乘曲面问题进行求解,获得最优匹配于期望曲率的曲面,同时保持原始曲面形状的重要几何属性及特征。实例证明,该方法实用性好,对各向异性光顺、特征增强、多尺度曲率编辑的处理效果理想。     

A 3D model perceptual feature metric based on global height field

Human visual attention system tends to be attracted to perceptual feature points on 3D model surfaces. However, purely geometric-based feature metrics may be insufficient to extract perceptual features, because they tend to detect local structure details. Intuitively, the perceptual importance degree of vertex is associated with the height of its geometry position between original model and a datum plane. So, we propose a novel and straightforward method to extract perceptually important points based on global height field. Firstly, we construct spectral domain using Laplace–Beltrami operator, and we perform spectral synthesis to reconstruct a rough approximation of the original model by adopting low-frequency coefficients, and make it as the 3D datum plane. Then, to build global height field, we calculate the Euclidean distance between vertex geometry position on original surface and the one on 3D datum plane. Finally, we set a threshold to extract perceptual feature vertices. We implement our technique on several 3D mesh models and compare our algorithm to six state-of-the-art interest points detection approaches. Experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm can accurately capture perceptually important points on arbitrary topology 3D model.     

Surface Fairing towards Regular Principal Curvature Line Networks

Freeform surfaces whose principal curvature line network is regularly distributed, are essential to many real applications like CAD modeling, architecture design, and industrial fabrication. However, most designed surfaces do not hold this nice property because it is hard to enforce such constraints in the design process. In this paper, we present a novel method for surface fairing which takes a regular distribution of the principal curvature line network on a surface as an objective. Our method first removes the high‐frequency signals from the curvature tensor field of an input freeform surface by a novel rolling guidance tensor filter, which results in a more regular and smooth curvature tensor field, then deforms the input surface to match the smoothed field as much as possible. As an application, we solve the problem of approximating freeform surfaces with regular principal curvature line networks, discretized by quadrilateral meshes. By introducing the circular or conical conditions on the quadrilateral mesh to guarantee the existence of discrete principal curvature line networks, and minimizing the approximate error to the original surface and improving the fairness of the quad mesh, we obtain a regular discrete principal curvature line network that approximates the original surface. We evaluate the efficacy of our method on various freeform surfaces and demonstrate the superiority of the rolling guidance tensor filter over other tensor smoothing techniques. We also utilize our method to generate high‐quality circular/conical meshes for architecture design and cyclide spline surfaces for CAD modeling.     

Shape differentiation of freeform surfaces using a similarity measure based on an integral of Gaussian curvature

Freeform surfaces are popularly used to design and model complex 3D objects. These 3D models are stored as computerized models in databases. To facilitate data retrieval and shape matching, a major challenge lies in defining and computing the level of similarity between two or more freeform surfaces. In order to explore the useful 3D information associated with the surfaces, an integrated approach based on the integral of Gaussian curvature is proposed to develop the measures of similarity of freeform surfaces. Specifically, the integral of Gaussian curvature is mapped into the 2D space, and a shape-based measure is developed using statistical methods to compute the level of similarity. For smooth surfaces, a fast approximation algorithm is developed to calculate the curvature of individual subregions. In cases where the target surface has a complex topological structure or a smooth surface is not available, the integral of Gaussian curvature for the discrete surface is first calculated at each vertex, followed by mapping onto a 2D spherical coordinate. The distance measure focuses on the local geometry, which is critical to investigate models with a certain level of resemblance such as products in a family. This proposed approach can be applied to surfaces under various transformations, as well as 3D data from various sources.     

基于EMD的四边域曲面光顺算法

曲面光顺在计算机辅助几何设计（CAGD）中有重要应用,带噪声离散曲面可视为一种非平稳离散几何信号。经验模式分解（EMD）方法是分析非线性、非平稳信号的有效方法。提出了一种空间任意曲线EMD光顺方法和基于2维可分离的EMD曲面光顺方法。针对四边域离散曲面可视为U和V离散曲线构成的网格,且U和V曲线呈现空间任意形态。空间曲线光顺中,首先对数字曲线进行1维参数化,将曲线展开成1维信号;然后采用EMD对展开信号进行多分辨率分解,得到不同尺度下的内蕴模式函数(IMF),去除高频的IMF,重构信号;最后将重构信号逆映射回3维,得到光顺后的曲线。四边域曲面沿每条U,V线进行EMD光顺处理,得到光顺后曲面。实验结果表明,该方法可有效剔除曲面上的随机噪声,达到良好的曲面光顺效果。     

Robust Feature-Preserving Mesh Denoising Based on Consistent Subneighborhoods

In this paper, we introduce a feature-preserving denoising algorithm. It is built on the premise that the underlying surface of a noisy mesh is piecewise smooth, and a sharp feature lies on the intersection of multiple smooth surface regions. A vertex close to a sharp feature is likely to have a neighborhood that includes distinct smooth segments. By defining the consistent subneighborhood as the segment whose geometry and normal orientation most consistent with those of the vertex, we can completely remove the influence from neighbors lying on other segments during denoising. Our method identifies piecewise smooth subneighborhoods using a robust density-based clustering algorithm based on shared nearest neighbors. In our method, we obtain an initial estimate of vertex normals and curvature tensors by robustly fitting a local quadric model. An anisotropic filter based on optimal estimation theory is further applied to smooth the normal field and the curvature tensor field. This is followed by second-order bilateral filtering, which better preserves curvature details and alleviates volume shrinkage during denoising. The support of these filters is defined by the consistent subneighborhood of a vertex. We have applied this algorithm to both generic and CAD models, and sharp features, such as edges and corners, are very well preserved.     

A Multi-Channel Salience Based Detail Exaggeration Technique for 3D Relief Surfaces

Visual saliency can always persuade the viewer’s visual attention to fine-scale mesostructure of 3D complex shapes.Owing to the multi-channel salience measure and salience-domain shape modeling technique,a novel visual saliency based shape depiction scheme is presented to exaggerate salient geometric details of the underlying relief surface.Our multi-channel salience measure is calculated by combining three feature maps,i.e.,the 0-order feature map of local height distribution,the 1-order feature map of normal difference,and the 2-order feature map of mean curvature variation.The original relief surface is firstly manipulated by a salience-domain enhancement function,and the detail exaggeration surface can then be obtained by adjusting the surface normals of the original surface as the corresponding final normals of the manipulated surface.The advantage of our detail exaggeration technique is that it can adaptively alter the shading of the original shape to reveal visually salient features whilst keeping the desired appearance unimpaired.The experimental results demonstrate that our non-photorealistic shading scheme can enhance the surface mesostructure effectively and thus improving the shape depiction of the relief surfaces.     

Modeling smooth shape using subdivision on differential coordinates

Traditional subdivision schemes are applied on Euclidean coordinates (the spatial geometry of the control mesh). Although the subdivision limit surfaces are almost everywhere C² continuous, their mean-curvature normals are only C⁰. In order to generate higher quality surfaces with better-distributed mean-curvature normals, we propose a novel framework to apply subdivision for shape modeling, which combines subdivision with differential shape processing. Our framework contains two parts: subdivision on differential coordinates (a kind of differential geometry of the control mesh), and mutual conversions between Euclidean coordinates and differential coordinates. Further discussions about various strategies in both parts include a special subdivision method for mean-curvature normals, additional surface editing options, and a version of our framework for curve design. Finally, we demonstrate the improvement on surface quality by comparing the results between our framework and traditional subdivision methods.     

Empirical mode decomposition on surfaces

Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) is a powerful tool for analysing non-linear and non-stationary signals, and has drawn a great deal of attentions in various areas. In this paper, we generalize the classical EMD from Euclidean space to the setting of surfaces represented as triangular meshes. Inspired by the EMD, we also propose a feature-preserving smoothing method based on extremal envelopes. The core of our generalized EMD on surfaces is an envelope computation method that solves a bi-harmonic field with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Experimental results show that the proposed generalization of EMD on surfaces works well. We also demonstrate that the generalized EMD can be effectively utilized in filtering scalar functions defined over surfaces and surfaces themselves.     

Direct Manipulation and Interactive Sculpting of PDE Surfaces

This paper presents an integrated approach and a unified algorithm that combine the benefits of PDE surfaces and powerful physics-based modeling techniques within one single modeling framework, in order to realize the full potential of PDE surfaces. We have developed a novel system that allows direct manipulation and interactive sculpting of PDE surfaces at arbitrary location, hence supporting various interactive techniques beyond the conventional boundary control. Our prototype software affords users to interactively modify point, normal, curvature, and arbitrary region of PDE surfaces in a predictable way. We employ several simple, yet effective numerical techniques including the finite-difference discretization of the PDE surface, the multigrid-like subdivision on the PDE surface, the mass-spring approximation of the elastic PDE surface, etc. to achieve real-time performance. In addition, our dynamic PDE surfaces can also be approximated using standard bivariate B-spline finite elements, which can subsequently be sculpted and deformed directly in real-time subject to intrinsic PDE constraints. Our experiments demonstrate many attractive advantages of our dynamic PDE formulation such as intuitive control, real-time feedback, and usability to the general public.     

Surface mesh denoising with normal tensor framework

In this paper, we propose a novel method for feature-preserving mesh denoising based on the normal tensor framework. We utilize the normal tensor voting directly for the mesh denoising whose eigenvalues and eigenvectors are used for detecting saliency, and introduce an algorithm that updates a vertex by the Laplacian of curvature which minimizes a difference of the curvature in one neighborhood. By connecting the feature saliency with a distance metric in the normal tensor space, our algorithm preserves sharp features more robustly and clearly for noisy mesh data. Comparing our method with the existing ones, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm against some synthetic noisy data and real-world scanned data.     

离散曲面的近似Poisson盘采样

Poisson盘采样作为计算机图形学的一个重要课题,在重网格化、过程纹理、物体分布、光照计算等方面都有重要应用.虽然最近几年对于2维平面Poisson盘采样的研究比较密集,但是直接对于2维流形表面上的Poisson盘采样的研究却比较少.在本文中,我们提出了一种可以直接在Mesh表面生成近似Poisson盘分布的方法.此方法实现简单,同时可以通过简单修改适用于保特征的采样和自适应采样.文中引入了张量投票的方法来实现特征识别和自适应采样半径的计算,并给出了采样后的重网格化结果,作为此算法的一个后期应用.通过大量实例表明,本文方法快速、鲁棒、适用广泛.     

A robust high-resolution details preserving denoising algorithm for meshes

Poisson disk sampling has been widely used in many applications such as remeshing, procedural texturing, object distribution, illumination, etc. While 2D Poisson disk sampling is intensively studied in recent years, direct Poisson disk sampling on 2-manifold surface is rarely covered. In this paper, we present a novel framework which generates approximate Poisson disk distribution directly on mesh, a discrete representation of 2-manifold surfaces. Our framework is easy to implement and provides extra flexibility to specified sampling issues like feature-preserving sampling and adaptive sampling. We integrate the tensor voting method into feature detection and adaptive sample radius calculation. Remeshing as a special downstream application is also addressed. According to our experiment results, our framework is efficient, robust, and widely applicable.     

Putting Objects in Perspective

Image understanding requires not only individually estimating elements of the visual world but also capturing the interplay among them. In this paper, we provide a framework for placing local object detection in the context of the overall 3D scene by modeling the interdependence of objects, surface orientations, and camera viewpoint. Most object detection methods consider all scales and locations in the image as equally likely. We show that with probabilistic estimates of 3D geometry, both in terms of surfaces and world coordinates, we can put objects into perspective and model the scale and location variance in the image. Our approach reflects the cyclical nature of the problem by allowing probabilistic object hypotheses to refine geometry and vice-versa. Our framework allows painless substitution of almost any object detector and is easily extended to include other aspects of image understanding. Our results confirm the benefits of our integrated approach.     

Geodesic Remeshing Using Front Propagation

In this paper, we propose a complete framework for 3D geometry modeling and processing that uses only fast geodesic computations. The basic building block for these techniques is a novel greedy algorithm to perform a uniform or adaptive remeshing of a triangulated surface. Our other contributions include a parameterization scheme based on barycentric coordinates, an intrinsic algorithm for computing geodesic centroidal tessellations, and a fast and robust method to flatten a genus-0 surface patch. On large meshes (more than 500,000 vertices), our techniques speed up computation by over one order of magnitude in comparison to classical remeshing and parameterization methods. Our methods are easy to implement and do not need multilevel solvers to handle complex models that may contain poorly shaped triangles.     

Geometry Textures and Applications†

Geometry textures are a novel geometric representation for surfaces based on height maps. The visualization is done through a graphics processing unit (GPU) ray casting algorithm applied to the whole object. At rendering time, the fine‐scale details (mesostructures) are reconstructed preserving original quality. Visualizing surfaces with geometry textures allows a natural level‐of‐detail (LOD) behaviour. There are numerous applications that can benefit from the use of geometry textures. In this paper, besides a mesostructure visualization survey, we present geometry textures with three possible applications: rendering of solid models, geological surfaces visualization and surface smoothing.     

Normal improvement for point rendering

Models created from 3D scanners are becoming more prevalent as the demand for realistic geometry grows and scanners become more common. Unfortunately, scanned models are invariably noisy. This noise corrupts both samples' positions and normals. Our proposed method for improving normals is derived from a feature-preserving geometry filter. Many such filters are available, most operating on models represented as triangle meshes. We argue that for point rendering, removing noise from normals is more important than removing noise from geometry, because normals have a greater impact on the model's perceived quality. Two approaches for smoothing point models have been proposed. Point set surfaces estimate smoothed normals and geometry by least-squares fitting to locally weighted neighborhoods. The spectral processing method creates a local height field, which is then filtered and resampled. The former method is not feature preserving, while the latter requires resampling to a regular grid, which can degrade features. Our method is novel in that it preserves features and doesn't require resampling.