WSEAS Transactions on Computers
Print ISSN: 1109-2750, E-ISSN: 2224-2872
Volume 12, 2013
3D Surface Simplification Based on Extended Shape Operator
Authors: Juin-Ling Tseng, Yu-Hsuan Lin
Abstract: In order to present realistic scenes and models, complex triangle meshes comprising large numbers of triangles are often used to describe 3D models. However, with an increase in the number of triangles, storage and computation costs will raise. To preserve more geometric features of 3D models, Zhanhong and Shutian employed the curvature factor of collapsing edge, Gaussian Curvature, to improve the Quadric Error Metrics (QEM) simplification. Their method allows the QEM not only to measure distance error but also to reflect geometric variations of local surface. However, the method can only estimate the curvature factors of vertices in manifold surfaces due to Gaussian Curvature. To overcome this problem, we propose a new simplification method, called Extended Shape Operator. The Extended Shape Operator estimates the local surface variation using three-rings shape operator. The Extended Shape Operator can be applied in the simplification of manifold and non-manifold surfaces. In our experiment, we employed the error detection tool, Metro, to compare errors resulting from simplification. The results of the experiment demonstrate that when the model has been simplified, the proposed method is superior to the simplification method proposed by Zhanhong and Shutian.