MathSciDoc: An Archive for Mathematician ∫

Automatic reconstruction of 3D objects from 2D orthographic views has been a major research issue in CAD/CAM. In this paper, two accelerating techniques to improve the eÆciency of reconstruction are presented. First, some pseudo elements are removed by depth and topology information as soon as the wire-frame is constructed, which reduces the searching space. Second, the proposed algorithm does not establish all possible surfaces in the process of generating 3D faces. The surfaces and edge loops are generated by using the relationship between the boundaries of 3D faces and their projections. This avoids the growth in combinational complexity of previous methods that have to check all possible pairs of 3D candidate edges.

This paper presents a new approach for reconstructing solids with planar, quadric and toroidal surfaces from three-view engineering drawings. By applying geometric theory to 3-D reconstruction, our method is able to remove restrictions placed on the axes of curved surfaces by existing methods. The main feature of our algorithm is that it combines the geometric properties of conics with affine properties to recover a wider range of 3-D edges. First, the algorithm determines the type of each 3-D candidate conic edge based on its projections in three orthographic views, and then generates that candidate edge using the conjugate diameter method. This step produces a wire-frame model that contains all candidate vertices and candidate edges. Next, a maximum turning angle method is developed to find all the candidate faces in the wire-frame model. Finally, a general and efficient searching technique is proposed for finding valid solids from the candidate faces; the technique greatly reduces the searching space and the backtracking incidents. Several examples are given to demonstrate the efficiency and capability of the proposed algorithm.

NURBS surfaces are among the most commonly used parametric surfaces in CAGD and Computer Graphics. This paper investigates shape modification of NURBS surfaces with geometric constraints, such as point, normal vector, and curve constraints. Two new methods are presented by constrained optimization and energy minimization. The former is based on minimizing changes in control net of surfaces, whereas the latter is based on strain energy minimization. By these two methods, we change control points and weights of an original surface, such that the modified surface satisfies the given constraints. Comparison results and practical examples are also given.

In this paper, two explicit conversion formulae between triangular and rectangular Bézier patches are derived. Using the formulae, one triangular Bézier patch of degree n can be converted into one rectangular Bézier patch of degree $n \times n$. And one rectangular Bézier patch of degree m × n can be converted into two triangular Bézier patches of degree $m + n$ . Besides, two stable recursive algorithms corresponding to the two conversion formulae are given. Using the algorithms, when converting triangular Bézier patches to rectangular Bézier patches, we can computer the relations between the control points of the two types of patches for any $n\ge2$ based on the relationships for $n=1$. When converting rectangular Bézier patches to triangular Bézier patches, we can computer the relations between the control points of the two types of patches for any $m\ge 2, n \subset N^+ $ and $n \ge 2, m \subset N^+$ based on the relationships for $m=n=1$.

The ability to directly manipulate an embedded object in the free-form deformation (FFD) method improves controllability. However, the existing solution to this problem involves a pseudo-inverse matrix that requires complicated calculations. This paper solves the problem using a constrained optimization method. We derive the explicit solutions for deforming an object which is to pass through a given target point. For constraints with multiple target points, the proposed solution also involves simple calculations, only requiring solving a system of linear equations.We show that the direct manipulations exhibit the commutative group property, namely commutative, associative, and invertible properties, which further enhance the controllability of FFD. In addition, we show that multiple point constraints can be decomposed into separate manipulations of single point constraints, thus providing the user the freedom of specifying the constraints in any appropriate order.

In this paper, we propose the generalized B divided difference, with which the $(k−1)$th derivative of B-spline curves of order $k$ can be obtained directly without the need to compute the first $(k−2)$ derivatives as before. Based on the generalized B divided difference, the necessary and sufficient condition for degree-reducible B-spline curves is presented. Algorithms for degree reduction of B-spline curves are proposed using the constrained optimization methods.

This paper deals with the merging problem, i.e. to approximate two adjacent Bézier curves by a single Bézier curve. A novel approach for approximate merging is introduced in the paper by using the constrained optimization method. The basic idea of this method is to find conditions for the precise merging of Bézier curves first, and then compute the constrained optimization solution by moving the control points. “Discrete” coefficient norm in L2 sense and “squared difference integral” norm are used in our method. Continuity at the endpoints of curves are considered in the merging process, and approximate merging with points constraints are also discussed. Further, it is shown that the degree elevation of original Bézier curves will reduce the merging error.

The polygonal approximation problem is a primary problem in computer graphics, pattern recognition, CAD/CAM, etc. In $R^2$, the cone intersection method (CIM) is one of the most eÆcient algorithms for approximating polygonal curves. With CIM Eu and Toussaint, by imposing an additional constraint and changing the given error criteria, resolve the three-dimensional weighted minimum number polygonal approximation problem with the parallel-strip error criterion (PS-WMN) under $L_2$ norm. In this paper, without any additional constraint and change of the error criteria, a CIM solution to the same problem with the line segment error criterion (LS-WMN) is presented, which is more frequently encountered than the PS-WMN is. Its time complexity is $O(n^3)$, and the space complexity is $O(n^2)$. An approximation algorithm is also presented, which takes $O(n^2)$ time and $O(n)$ space. Results of some examples are given to illustrate the eÆciency of these algorithms.

We present a real-time approach for acquiring 3D objects with high fidelity using hand-held consumer-level RGB-D scanning devices. Existing real-time reconstruction methods typically do not take the point of interest into account, and thus might fail to produce clean reconstruction results of desired objects due to distracting objects or backgrounds. In addition, any changes in background during scanning, which can often occur in real scenarios, can easily break up the whole reconstruction process. To address these issues, we incorporate visual saliency into a traditional real-time volumetric fusion pipeline. Salient regions detected from RGB-D frames suggest user-intended objects, and by understanding user intentions our approach can put more emphasis on important targets, and meanwhile, eliminate disturbance of non-important objects. Experimental results on real world scans demonstrate that our system is capable of effectively acquiring geometric information of salient objects in cluttered real-world scenes, even if the backgrounds are changing.

Surface flow phenomena, such as rain water flowing down a tree trunk and progressive water front in a shower room, are common in real life. However, compared with the 3D spatial fluid flow, these surface flow problems have been much less studied in the graphics community. To tackle this research gap, we present an efficient, robust and high-fidelity simulation approach based on the shallow-water equations. Specifically, the standard shallow-water flow model is extended to general triangle meshes with a feature-based bottom friction model, and a series of coherent mathematical formulations are derived to represent the full range of physical effects that are important for real-world surface flow phenomena. In addition, by achieving compatibility with existing 3D fluid simulators and by supporting physically realistic interactions with multiple fluids and solid surfaces, the new model is flexible and readily extensible for coupled phenomena. A wide range of simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the performance of the new approach.