Dupin Cyclides as a Subspace of Darboux Cyclides

Dupin cyclides are interesting algebraic surfaces used in geometric design and architecture to join canal surfaces smoothly and construct model surfaces. Dupin cyclides are special cases of Darboux cyclides, which in turn are rather general surfaces in R^3 of degree 3 or 4. This article derives the algebraic conditions (on the coefficients of the implicit equation) for recognition of Dupin cyclides among the general implicit form of Darboux cyclides. We aim at practicable sets of algebraic equations describing complete intersections inside the parameter space.Comment: 20 pages, 1 figur

Enumerating the morphologies of non-degenerate Darboux cyclides

International audienceWe provide an enumeration of all possible morphologies of non-degenerate Darboux cyclides. Based on the fact that every Darboux cyclide in R 3 is the stereographic projection of the intersection surface of a sphere and a quadric in R 4 , we transform the enumeration problem of morphologies of Darboux cyclides to the enumeration of the algebraic sequences that characterize the intersection of a sphere and a quadric in R 4

The implicit equation of a canal surface

A canal surface is an envelope of a one parameter family of spheres. In this paper we present an efficient algorithm for computing the implicit equation of a canal surface generated by a rational family of spheres. By using Laguerre and Lie geometries, we relate the equation of the canal surface to the equation of a dual variety of a certain curve in 5-dimensional projective space. We define the \mu-basis for arbitrary dimension and give a simple algorithm for its computation. This is then applied to the dual variety, which allows us to deduce the implicit equations of the the dual variety, the canal surface and any offset to the canal surface.Comment: 26 pages, to be published in Journal of Symbolic Computatio

Geometry and Topology of the Minkowski Product

The Minkowski product can be viewed as a higher dimensional version of interval arithmetic. We discuss a collection of geometric constructions based on the Minkowski product and on one of its natural generalizations, the quaternion action. We also will present some topological facts about these products, and discuss the applications of these constructions to computer aided geometric design

Tangent-ball techniques for shape processing

Shape processing defines a set of theoretical and algorithmic tools for creating, measuring and modifying digital representations of shapes.  Such tools are of paramount importance to many disciplines of computer graphics, including modeling, animation, visualization, and image processing.  Many applications of shape processing can be found in the entertainment and medical industries. In an attempt to improve upon many previous shape processing techniques, the present thesis explores the theoretical and algorithmic aspects of a difference measure, which involves fitting a ball (disk in 2D and sphere in 3D) so that it has at least one tangential contact with each shape and the ball interior is disjoint from both shapes. We propose a set of ball-based operators and discuss their properties, implementations, and applications.  We divide the group of ball-based operations into unary and binary as follows: Unary operators include: * Identifying details (sharp, salient features, constrictions) * Smoothing shapes by removing such details, replacing them by fillets and roundings * Segmentation (recognition, abstract modelization via centerline and radius variation) of tubular structures Binary operators include: * Measuring the local discrepancy between two shapes * Computing the average of two shapes * Computing point-to-point correspondence between two shapes * Computing circular trajectories between corresponding points that meet both shapes at right angles * Using these trajectories to support smooth morphing (inbetweening) * Using a curve morph to construct surfaces that interpolate between contours on consecutive slices The technical contributions of this thesis focus on the implementation of these tangent-ball operators and their usefulness in applications of shape processing. We show specific applications in the areas of animation and computer-aided medical diagnosis.  These algorithms are simple to implement, mathematically elegant, and fast to execute.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Jarek Rossignac; Committee Member: Greg Slabaugh; Committee Member: Greg Turk; Committee Member: Karen Liu; Committee Member: Maryann Simmon

Differential equation-based shape interpolation for surface blending and facial blendshapes.

Differential equation-based shape interpolation has been widely applied in geometric modelling and computer animation. It has the advantages of physics-based, good realism, easy obtaining of high- order continuity, strong ability in describing complicated shapes, and small data of geometric models. Among various applications of differential equation-based shape interpolation, surface blending and facial blendshapes are two active and important topics. Differential equation-based surface blending can be time-independent and time-dependent. Existing differential equation-based surface blending only tackles time-dependen

Blending canal surfaces along given circles using Dupin cyclides

International audienc