Premium
A Compressed Data Structure for Surface Representation
Author(s) -
Cottingham Marion S.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
computer graphics forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.578
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1467-8659
pISSN - 0167-7055
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8659.1985.tb00222.x
Subject(s) - polyhedron , surface (topology) , computer science , representation (politics) , boundary representation , curvature , data structure , simple (philosophy) , computer graphics (images) , computer vision , artificial intelligence , geometry , mathematics , boundary (topology) , mathematical analysis , philosophy , epistemology , politics , political science , law , programming language
One of the standard methods of simplifying the task of obtaining a shaded image of a solid object is to represent it by a polyhedron. Another method is to use sculptured surface modelling which represents surfaces by collections of surface patches. Using either method the surfaces can be approximated by facets, which are simple to shade according to photometry information. To obtain a smooth image in regions of high curvature, the surface would typically be required to have hundreds or thousands of facets. Because of the large number of facets involved, it is extremely important that geometrical and topological information is stored in an efficient manner. This information must include all that is required for an unambiguous representation of the solid(s) in question. The compressed data structure (CDS) is suitable for this purpose, and is capable of defining the majority of surfaces. The structure is intended to minimise the amount of data stored, with as much information as possible being implied. The CDS can be easily generated knowing the order of the vertices defining the surface.