Volume preserving mesh parameterization based on optimal mass transportation

In order to convert a finite element mesh model to the spline representation for the purpose of isogeometric analysis, one needs to parameterize the solid. This work introduces a novel volumetric parameterization method, which guarantees to be free of volume distortion.Given a simply connected tetrahedral mesh with a single boundary surface, we first compute a harmonic map from the boundary triangle mesh to the unit sphere by non-linear heat diffusion method; then we use the surface harmonic map as the boundary condition to compute the volumetric harmonic map to parameterize the solid onto the unit solid ball; finally we compute an optimal mass transportation map from the unit solid ball with the push-forward volume element induced by the harmonic map onto itself with the Euclidean volume element. The composition of the volumetric harmonic map and the optimal mass transportation map gives an volume-preserving parameterization.The method has solid theoretic foundation, and is based on conventional algorithms in computational geometry, easy to implement. We have thoroughly tested our algorithm on many solid models in reality. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and efficacy of the proposed method. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first work addressing volume-preserving parameterization in the literature.     

Measure controllable volumetric mesh parameterization

Volumetric parameterization is a fundamental problem in solid and physical modeling. In practice, it is highly desirable to control the volumes of the regions of interest in the parameter domain. This work introduces a novel volumetric parameterization method, which allows users to prescribe the target volumetric measure of the input solid.Given a simply connected tetrahedral mesh with a single boundary surface, we first compute a volumetric harmonic map to parameterize the solid onto the unit solid ball; then we compute an optimal mass transportation map from the unit solid ball with the push-forward volume element induced by the harmonic map onto the parameter domain with the user prescribed volumetric measure. The composition of the volumetric harmonic map and the optimal mass transportation map gives a measure controllable volumetric parameterization. Furthermore, this method can handle solids with empty voids inside.The method has solid theoretic foundation, and is based on conventional algorithms in computational geometry, and easy to implement. The experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and efficacy of the proposed method.     

Content-aware texture mapping

Interactively mapping texture into a curved surface has wide applications. Apart from mapping texture to desired positions with low distortions, which has been considered by existing works, few work considered the intuitive need to distribute distortions according to the texture contents. In this work, we present a texture mapping method guided by importance map to preserve the shape of the prominent content. We formulate it as an importance-value-weighted parameterization. The mapping distortions are measured by LSCM+ energy, which is capable of decreasing the appearance of shrunken and fold-over triangles as well as shape preservation; and the weights are efficiently calculated by transforming the area integral into a line integral. To solve the parameterization, we employ the ‘L–M’ (Levenberg–Marquardt) method and alternately update the weights and the coordinates since they are dependent on each other. Finally, we show some examples to demonstrate the content-aware effect by comparison to traditional parameterization.     

Optimal surface parameterization using inverse curvature map

Mesh parameterization is a fundamental technique in computer graphics. Our paper focuses on solving the problem of finding the best discrete conformal mapping that also minimizes area distortion. Firstly, we deduce an exact analytical differential formula to represent area distortion by curvature change in the discrete conformal mapping, giving a dynamic Poisson equation. Our result shows the curvature map is invertible. Furthermore, we give the explicit Jacobi matrix of the inverse curvature map. Secondly, we formulate the task of computing conformal parameterizations with least area distortions as a constrained nonlinear optimization problem in curvature space. We deduce explicit conditions for the optima. Thirdly, we give an energy form to measure the area distortions, and show it has a unique global minimum. We use this to design an efficient algorithm, called free boundary curvature diffusion, which is guaranteed to converge to the global minimum. This result proves the common belief that optimal parameterization with least area distortion has a unique solution and can be achieved by free boundary conformal mapping. Major theoretical results and practical algorithms are presented for optimal parameterization based on the inverse curvature map. Comparisons are conducted with existing methods and using different energies. Novel parameterization applications are also introduced.     

Computing global visibility maps for regions on the boundaries of polyhedra using Minkowski sums

A global visibility map is a spherical image built to describe the complete set of global visible view directions for a surface. In this paper, we consider the computation of global visibility maps for regions on the boundary of a polyhedron. Both the self-occlusions introduced by a region and the global occlusions introduced by the rest of the surfaces on the boundary of the polyhedron are considered for computing a global visibility map. We show that the occluded view directions introduced between a pair of polyhedral surfaces can be computed from the spherical projection of the Minkowski sum of one surface and the reflection of the other. A suitable subset of the Minkowski sum, which shares the identical spherical projection with the complete Minkowski sum, is constructed to obtain the spherical images representing global occlusions. Our method has been successfully tested on many CAD models. It extends the previous methods for computing global visibility maps using convex decomposition, and it exhibits a better performance.     

Bézier representation for cubic surface patches

The paper describes a new method for creating rectangular Bézier surface patches on an implicit cubic surface. Traditional techniques for representing surfaces have relied on parametric representations of surfaces, which, in general, generate surfaces of implicit degree 8 in the case of rectangular Bézier surfaces with rational biquadratic parameterization. The method constructs low-degree algebraic surface patches by reducing the implicit degree from 8 to 3. The construction uses a rectangular biquadratic Bézier control polyhedron that is embedded within a tetrahedron and satisfies a projective constraint. The control polyhedron and the resulting cubic surface patch satisfy all of the standard properties of parametric Bézier surfaces, including interpolation of the corners of the control polyhedron and the convex-hull property.     

虚拟物体间多点接触力再现研究

提出一种基于凸多面体间多点接触的虚拟力计算和再现方法,通过计算凸多面体的离散曲率,提取特征点并检测物体间的多点接触、边面接触和面面接触情况,在此基础上计算它们之间的虚拟力和摩擦力,同时输出到力觉交互设备。仿真实验结果表明,该方法能够有效体现凸多面体多点接触的力特征。     

形状可调的5次组合样条及其参数选择

目的 为了克服3次参数B样条在形状调整与局部性方面的不足,提出带参数的5次多项式组合样条。方法 首先构造一组带参数的5次多项式基函数;然后采用与3次B样条曲线相同的组合方式定义带参数的5次多项式组合样条曲线,并讨论基于能量优化法的5次组合样条曲线参数最佳取值问题;最后定义相应的组合样条曲面,并研究利用粒子群算法求解曲面的最佳参数取值。结果 5次组合样条不仅继承了3次B样条的诸多性质,而且还比3次B样条具有更强的局部性及形状可调性。由于5次组合样条仍为多项式模型,因此方程结构相对较为简单,符合实际工程的需要。利用能量优化法可获得光顺的5次组合样条曲线与曲面。结论 所提出5次多项式组合样条克服了3次参数B样条在形状调整与局部性方面的不足,是一种实用的自由曲线曲面造型方法。     

Analysis of microstructures and phase transition phenomena in one-dimensional, non-linear elasticity by convex optimization

We propose a general method for determining the theoretical microstructure in one-dimensional elastic bars whose internal deformation energy is given by nonconvex polynomials. We use nonconvex variational principles and Young measure theory to describe the optimal energetic configuration of the body. By using convex analysis and classical characterizations of algebraic moments, we can formulate the problem as a convex optimal control problem. Therefore, we can estimate the microstructure of several models by using nonlinear programming techniques. This method can determine the minimizers or the minimizing sequences of nonconvex, variational problems used in one-dimensional, nonlinear elasticity.     

A characterization of nearest-neighbor rule decision surfaces and a new approach to generate them

The paper considers generating nearest-neighbor rule decision surfaces as an application of a maxmin problem. The maxmin problem is to locate a point in a given convex polyhedron which maximizes the minimum distance from a given set of points in the polyhedron. A characterization of the decision surfaces in n-dimensions is given, and the difficulty involved in generating the decision surfaces in higher dimensional spaces is brought out through this characterization. However, a novel method is presented to generate the surfaces in three dimensions using the algorithm for the maxmin problem.     

Folding-Free Global Conformal Mapping for Genus-0 Surfaces by Harmonic Energy Minimization

Surface conformal maps between genus-0 surfaces play important roles in applied mathematics and engineering, with applications in medical image analysis and computer graphics. Previous work (Gu and Yau in Commun Inf Syst 2(2):121–146, 2002) introduces a variational approach, where global conformal parameterization of genus-0 surfaces was addressed through minimizing the harmonic energy, with two weaknesses: its gradient descent iteration is slow, and its solutions contain undesired parameterization foldings when the underlying surface has long sharp features. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that significantly accelerates the harmonic energy minimization and a method that iteratively removes foldings by taking advantages of the weighted Laplace–Beltrami eigen-projection. Experimental results show that the proposed approaches compute genus-0 surface harmonic maps much faster than the existing algorithm in Gu and Yau (Commun Inf Syst 2(2):121–146, 2002) and the new results contain no foldings.     

限制失真的网格参数化方法

针对当前网格参数化效率较低、映射失真较严重的问题，提出一种限制失真的网格参数化方法。首先，预处理原始网格模型。输入原3D网格模型，采用Half-Edge数据结构来重新组织网格并切割网格模型产生相应的切缝；构建Tutte映射把3D网格映射到一个2D凸多边形域，即构建2D网格模型。然后，进行限制失真的网格参数化计算。将Tutte映射后的2D网格模型作为限制失真计算的初始数据，建立相对于原3D模型网格的失真度量函数；求得该度量函数的最小值点，即为映射后的网格坐标集合；将映射后的网格作为限制失真映射的输入网格，设定迭代终止条件，循环迭代直至迭代结束，得到收敛的最优网格坐标；在计算映射失真度时，针对等距映射失真采用Dirichlet能量函数度量，针对共形映射失真采用尽可能等距（MIPS）能量函数度量；在求解映射失真度量函数的最小值点时采用代理函数法结合组合牛顿法的最优解方法。最终，实现了该方法并开发了一个原型系统。在原型系统中，分别设计了限制等距失真和限制共形失真的网格参数化实验，对程序执行时间和失真能量下降情况进行了统计和对比，提供了相应的纹理映射效果展示。实验数据表明，所提出的方法执行效率高、映射失真能量下降快，最优值收敛质量稳定；纹理映射时纹理着色均匀、布局紧致、线条均匀，符合实际应用的标准。     

Surface modeling with polynomial splines over hierarchical T-meshes

Computer graphics and computer-aided design communities prefer piecewise spline patches to represent surfaces. But keeping the smoothness between the adjacent patches is a challenging task. In this paper, we present a method for stitching several surface patches, which is a key step in complicated surface modeling, with polynomial splines over hierarchical T-meshes (PHT-spline for short). The method is simple and can be easily applied to complex surface modeling. With the method, spline surfaces can be constructed efficiently and adaptively to fit genus-zero meshes after their spherical parameterization is obtained, where only small sized linear systems of equations are involved.     

Equidistant Smoothing of Polyhedra with Arbitrary Topologies

Smoothing of polyhedron with arbitrary topology is an important issue in CAGD and CAD/CAM, but so far it is deemed to be difficult to smooth the complex corners of a polyhedron. In this paper, the concept of distance surfaces of a surface and a solid is introduced, and the incisive properties of such surfaces are addressed which provide a theoretical foundation for modifying a general corner. The method is based on making constricted volume and the maximum distance the volume can be constricted is given too. It is shown that by the proposed method in this paper any polyhedron can be G¹ smoothed with quadraic and, sometimes toroidal surfaces. The new approach is suitable for engineering design and NC machining. The associated algorithm based on the classification theorem of corners is simple, fast and robust.     

Nonsplitting Macro Patches for Implicit Cubic Spline Surfaces

Macro patches are important for generating quadric or cubic implicit spline surfaces from the input of a polyhedron. All existing macro patches split the triangular facets of the polyhedron; this paper presents cubic nonsplitting macro patches (NMP) that do not split these facets. The NMP's are based on a necessary and sufficient condition for nonsplitting constructions of implicit cubic spline surfaces. This condition can be satisfied for most practical applications, so the NMP's lead to an efficient and powerful spline surface scheme using implicit cubics. The free parameters in an NMP are set using a new technique for excluding topological anomalies such as extraneous sheets, splits, unwanted holes, self-intersections, and unwanted handles. Each cubic patch obtained by this technique best approximates, in a least-squares sense, a quadric patch from a single algebraic component of a monotone polynomial derived from the input data.     

Iso-parametric tool-path planning for point clouds

Due to the compute-intensiveness and the lack of robustness of the algorithms for reconstruction of meshes and spline surfaces from point clouds, there is a need for further research in the topic of direct tool-path planning based on point clouds. In this paper, a novel approach for planning iso-parametric tool-path from a point cloud is presented. Since such planning falls into the iso-parametric category, it intrinsically depends on the parameterization of point clouds. Accordingly, a point-based conformal map is employed to build the parameterization. Based on it, formulas of computing path parameters are derived, which are much simpler than the conventional ones. By regularizing parameter domain and on the basis of the previous formulas, boundary conformed tool-path can be generated with forward and side step calculated against specified chord deviation and scallop height, respectively. Experimental results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.     

Approximate straightest path computation and its application in parameterization

This paper proposes an approaching method to compute the straightest path between two vertices on meshes. An initial cutting plane is first constructed using the normal information of the source and destination vertices. Then an optimal cutting plane is iteratively created by comparing with previous path distance. Our study shows that the final straightest path based on this optimal cutting plane is more accurate and insensitive to the mesh boundary. Furthermore, we apply the straightest path result to compute the measured boundary in the parameter domain for mesh parameterization, and we obtain a new computing formula for vertex stretch in the planar parameterization. Experimental results show that our parameterization method can effectively reduce distortions.     

Bézier样条曲线的近似弧长参数化方法

提出了Bézier样条曲线近似弧长参数化的方法及相应的算法。通过求出曲线近似二分之一弧长的点及其相应的参数值,可将曲线分割为两条Bézier样条曲线。这两条曲线的弧长近似相等,因此让它们带有相同的权1。对新生成的Bézier样条曲线不断重复上述工作,最终得到一条由多条Bézier样条曲线所构成的新的曲线。将这多条Bézier样条曲线合并为一条Bézier样条曲线,进而通过节点插入技术将其转化为B样条形式的曲线以便得到全局参数,其中各段Bézier曲线在全局参数域中所占子区间的长度与它们所具有的权成比例,这样便得到一条近似弧长参数化曲线。     

An Optimized Image Segmentation Approach Based on Boltzmann Machine

Image segmentation with complex background is a tedious task. In our study, a convex spline is constructed based on Good Features to Track (GF2T) method’s region-based salient feature (i.e., corner) set. For an optimized edge-based segmentation, an ellipse shape prior based on this convex spline is useful in edge regularization procedure with region-based features. This kind of optimization is achieved by Boltzmann machine (BM) to automatically form an elliptical foreground mask of the GrabCut method. We demonstrated our approach’s usability through traveling salesman problem (TSP), thus, we consider that the TSP’s valid tour’s path solved by BM can be taken as an optimized convex spline for edge-based segmentation. In our experiments, proposed BM-based approach has the performance improvement of segmentation to stand-alone GF2T as 29.79% improvement based on bounding boxes evaluation and as 38.67% improvement based on the overlapping pixel regions for a quantitative evaluation via objective metrics.     

Optimization of Surface Registrations Using Beltrami Holomorphic Flow

In shape analysis, finding an optimal 1-1 correspondence between 3D surfaces within a large class of admissible bijective mappings is of great importance. Such a process is called surface registration. The difficulty lies in the fact that the space of all surface diffeomorphisms is a complicated functional space, making it challenging to exhaustively search for the best mapping. To tackle this problem, we propose a simple representation of bijective surface maps using Beltrami coefficients (BCs)—complex-valued functions defined on surfaces with supremum norm less than 1. Fixing any 3 points on a pair of surfaces, there is a 1-1 correspondence between the set of surface diffeomorphisms between them and the set of BCs. Hence, every bijective surface map may be represented by a unique BC. Conversely, given a BC, we can reconstruct the unique surface map associated with it using the Beltrami Holomorphic flow (BHF) method. Using BCs to represent surface maps is advantageous because it is a much simpler functional space, which captures many essential features of a surface map. By adjusting BCs, we equivalently adjust surface diffeomorphisms to obtain the optimal map with desired properties. More specifically, BHF gives us the variation of the associated map under the variation of BC. Using this, a variational problem over the space of surface diffeomorphisms can be easily reformulated into a variational problem over the space of BCs. This makes the minimization procedure much easier. More importantly, the diffeomorphic property is always preserved. We test our method on synthetic examples and real medical applications. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithm for surface registration.