title: Computing multiscale curve and surface skeletons of genus 0 shapes using a global importance measure.
abstract: We present a practical algorithm for computing robust, multiscale curve and surface skeletons of 3D objects. Based on a model which follows an advection principle, we assign to each point on the skeleton a part of the object surface, called the collapse. The size of the collapse is used as a uniform importance measure for the curve and surface skeleton, so that both can be simplified by imposing a single threshold on this intuitive measure. The simplified skeletons are connected by default, without special precautions, due to the monotonicity of the importance measure. The skeletons possess additional desirable properties: They are centered, robust to noise, hierarchical, and provide a natural skeleton-to-boundary mapping. We present a voxel-based algorithm that is straightforward to implement and simple to use. We illustrate our method on several realistic 3D objects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. d.reniers@tue.nl
authors.forename: Dennie
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Reniers
authors.forename: Jarke
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Wijk
authors.forename: Alexandru
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Telea