Continuously Flattening Polyhedra Using Straight Skeletons

We prove that a surprisingly simple algorithm folds the surface of every convex polyhedron, in any dimension, into a flat folding by a continuous motion, while preserving intrinsic distances and avoiding crossings. The flattening respects the straight-skeleton gluing, meaning that points of the polyhedron touched by a common ball inside the polyhedron come into contact in the flat folding, which answers an open question in the book Geometric Folding Algorithms. The primary creases in our folding process can be found in quadratic time, though necessarily, creases must roll continuously, and we show that the full crease pattern can be exponential in size. We show that our method solves the fold-and-cut problem for convex polyhedra in any dimension. As an additional application, we show how a limiting form of our algorithm gives a general design technique for flat origami tessellations, for any spiderweb (planar graph with all-positive equilibrium stress)

Computing largest circles separating two sets of segments

A circle $C$ separates two planar sets if it encloses one of the sets and its open interior disk does not meet the other set. A separating circle is a largest one if it cannot be locally increased while still separating the two given sets. An Theta(n log n) optimal algorithm is proposed to find all largest circles separating two given sets of line segments when line segments are allowed to meet only at their endpoints. In the general case, when line segments may intersect $\Omega(n^2)$ times, our algorithm can be adapted to work in O(n alpha(n) log n) time and O(n \alpha(n)) space, where alpha(n) represents the extremely slowly growing inverse of the Ackermann function.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, abstract presented at 8th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, 199

Skeletal representations of orthogonal shapes

In this paper we present two skeletal representations applied to orthogonal shapes of R^n : the cube axis and a family of skeletal representations provided by the scale cube axis. Orthogonal shapes are a subset of polytopes, where the hyperplanes of the bounding facets are restricted to be axis aligned. Both skeletal representations rely on the L∞ metric and are proven to be homotopically equivalent to its shape. The resulting skeleton is composed of n − 1 dimensional facets. We also provide an efficient and robust algorithm to compute the scale cube axis in the plane and compare the resulting skeleton with other skeletal representations.Postprint (published version

Reprint of: Weighted straight skeletons in the plane

We investigate weighted straight skeletons from a geometric, graph-theoretical, and combinatorial point of view. We start with a thorough definition and shed light on some ambiguity issues in the procedural definition. We investigate the geometry, combinatorics, and topology of faces and the roof model, and we discuss in which cases a weighted straight skeleton is connected. Finally, we show that the weighted straight skeleton of even a simple polygon may be non-planar and may contain cycles, and we discuss under which restrictions on the weights and/or the input polygon the weighted straight skeleton still behaves similar to its unweighted counterpart. In particular, we obtain a non-procedural description and a linear-time construction algorithm for the straight skeleton of strictly convex polygons with arbitrary weights

Steinitz Theorems for Orthogonal Polyhedra

We define a simple orthogonal polyhedron to be a three-dimensional polyhedron with the topology of a sphere in which three mutually-perpendicular edges meet at each vertex. By analogy to Steinitz's theorem characterizing the graphs of convex polyhedra, we find graph-theoretic characterizations of three classes of simple orthogonal polyhedra: corner polyhedra, which can be drawn by isometric projection in the plane with only one hidden vertex, xyz polyhedra, in which each axis-parallel line through a vertex contains exactly one other vertex, and arbitrary simple orthogonal polyhedra. In particular, the graphs of xyz polyhedra are exactly the bipartite cubic polyhedral graphs, and every bipartite cubic polyhedral graph with a 4-connected dual graph is the graph of a corner polyhedron. Based on our characterizations we find efficient algorithms for constructing orthogonal polyhedra from their graphs.Comment: 48 pages, 31 figure

Weighted skeletons and fixed-share decomposition

AbstractWe introduce the concept of weighted skeleton of a polygon and present various decomposition and optimality results for this skeletal structure when the underlying polygon is convex

Extending 2-D Smoothed Local Symmetries to 3-D

3-D Smoothed Local Symmetries (3-D SLS's) are presented as a representation for three-dimensional shapes. 3-D SLS's make explicit the perceptually salient features of 3-D objects and are especially suited to representing man-made objects. The definition of the 3-D SLS is given as a natural extension of the 2-D Smoothed Local Symmetry (2-D SLS). Analytic descriptions of the 3-D SLS are derived for objects composed of planar and spherical patches. Results of an implementation of the 3-D SLS are presented, along with suggestions for further research.MIT Artificial Intelligence Laborator