Surface Segmentation and Shape Modification for 3D Geometric Objects

The design and display of 3D models on a computer§screen is usually interleaved§by a series of data manipulations. Data are usually§sets of 3D points that make up§polygonal patches in the composition of polyhedral§models. Manipulations are the§transformation operations that are applied to points§to facilitate design and visual understanding§of the graphical models. To further facilitate the§visual understanding of§the displayed models for applications such as the§field of anatomy, or speed up the§design phase for applications such as rapid§prototyping, methods are proposed to interactively§query data points for shape-control, segment portions§of displayed surfaces§for independent modification, modify and re-integrate§the modified segments to the§main structure, thereby limiting the number of§polygons that need to be manipulated§for computationally cheaper and faster results. §This book illustrates how polyhedral surfaces can be§organized into special data§structures to facilitate rapid selection of groups of§data points, and provides several§algorithms to facilitate the applications of§interactive operations on such selected data.