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Computing Local Signed Distance Fields for Large Polygonal Models
Author(s) -
Chang B.,
Cha D.,
Ihm I.
Publication year - 2008
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.1467-8659.2008.01210.x
Subject(s) - computer science , computation , distance transform , signed distance function , graphics processing unit , computer graphics (images) , field (mathematics) , geometric modeling , computer graphics , visualization , surface (topology) , computational geometry , boundary (topology) , computational science , algorithm , geometry , computer vision , artificial intelligence , mathematics , parallel computing , image (mathematics) , mathematical analysis , pure mathematics
The signed distance field for a polygonal model is a useful representation that facilitates efficient computation in many visualization and geometric processing tasks. Often it is more effective to build a local distance field only within a narrow band around the surface that holds local geometric information for the model. In this paper, we present a novel technique to construct a volumetric local signed distance field of a polygonal model. To compute the local field efficiently, exactly those cells that cross the polygonal surface are found first through a new voxelization method, building a list of intersecting triangles for each boundary cell. After their neighboring cells are classified, the triangle lists are exploited to compute the local signed distance field with minimized voxel‐to‐triangle distance computations. While several efficient methods for computing the distance field, particularly those harnessing the graphics processing unit's (GPU's) processing power, have recently been proposed, we focus on a CPU‐based technique, intended to deal flexibly with large polygonal models and high‐resolution grids that are often too bulky for GPU computation.