Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationThe medial axis of an object is a shape descriptor that intuitively presents the morphology or structure of the object as well as intrinsic geometric properties of the object’s shape. These properties have made the medial axis a vital ingredient for shape analysis applications, and therefore the computation of which is a fundamental problem in computational geometry. This dissertation presents new methods for accurately computing the 2D medial axis of planar objects bounded by B-spline curves, and the 3D medial axis of objects bounded by B-spline surfaces. The proposed methods for the 3D case are the first techniques that automatically compute the complete medial axis along with its topological structure directly from smooth boundary representations. Our approach is based on the eikonal (grassfire) flow where the boundary is offset along the inward normal direction. As the boundary deforms, different regions start intersecting with each other to create the medial axis. In the generic situation, the (self-) intersection set is born at certain creation-type transition points, then grows and undergoes intermediate transitions at special isolated points, and finally ends at annihilation-type transition points. The intersection set evolves smoothly in between transition points. Our approach first computes and classifies all types of transition points. The medial axis is then computed as a time trace of the evolving intersection set of the boundary using theoretically derived evolution vector fields. This dynamic approach enables accurate tracking of elements of the medial axis as they evolve and thus also enables computation of topological structure of the solution. Accurate computation of geometry and topology of 3D medial axes enables a new graph-theoretic method for shape analysis of objects represented with B-spline surfaces. Structural components are computed via the cycle basis of the graph representing the 1-complex of a 3D medial axis. This enables medial axis based surface segmentation, and structure based surface region selection and modification. We also present a new approach for structural analysis of 3D objects based on scalar functions defined on their surfaces. This approach is enabled by accurate computation of geometry and structure of 2D medial axes of level sets of the scalar functions. Edge curves of the 3D medial axis correspond to a subset of ridges on the bounding surfaces. Ridges are extremal curves of principal curvatures on a surface indicating salient intrinsic features of its shape, and hence are of particular interest as tools for shape analysis. This dissertation presents a new algorithm for accurately extracting all ridges directly from B-spline surfaces. The proposed technique is also extended to accurately extract ridges from isosurfaces of volumetric data using smooth implicit B-spline representations. Accurate ridge curves enable new higher-order methods for surface analysis. We present a new definition of salient regions in order to capture geometrically significant surface regions in the neighborhood of ridges as well as to identify salient segments of ridges

Differential topology and geometry of smooth embedded surfaces: selected topics

The understanding of surfaces embedded in E3 requires local and global concepts, which are respectively evocative of differential geometry and differential topology. While the local theory has been classical for decades, global objects such as the foliations defined by the lines of curvature, or the medial axis still pose challenging mathematical problems. This duality is also tangible from a practical perspective, since algorithms manipulating sampled smooth surfaces (meshes or point clouds) are more developed in the local than the global category. As a prerequisite for those interested in the development of algorithms for the manipulation of surfaces, we propose a concise overview of core concepts from differential topology applied to smooth embedded surfaces. We first recall the classification of umbilics, of curvature lines, and describe the corresponding stable foliations. Next, fundamentals of contact and singularity theory are recalled, together with the classification of points induced by the contact of the surface with a sphere. This classification is further used to define ridges and their properties, and to recall the stratification properties of the medial axis. Finally, properties of the medial axis are used to present sufficient conditions ensuring that two embedded surfaces are ambient isotopic. From a theoretical perspective, we expect this survey to ease the access to intricate notions scattered over several sources. From a practical standpoint, we hope it will be useful for those interested in certified approximations of smooth surfaces

Robust interrogation of differential properties for design and manufacture

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Ocean Engineering, 1994, and Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1994.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-123).by George D. Margetis.M.S

Topologically certified approximation of umbilics and ridges on polynomial parametric surface

Given a smooth surface, a blue (red) ridge is a curve along which the maximum (minimum) principal curvature has an extremum along its curvature line. Ridges are curves of extremal curvature and encode important informations used in surface analysis or segmentation. But reporting the ridges of a surface requires manipulating third and fourth order derivatives whence numerical difficulties. Additionally, ridges have self-intersections and complex interactions with the umbilics of the surface whence topological difficulties. In this context, we make two contributions for the computation of ridges of polynomial parametric surfaces. First, by instantiating to the polynomial setting a global structure theorem of ridge curves proved in a companion paper, we develop the first certified algorithm to produce a topological approximation of the curve P encoding all the ridges of the surface. The algorithm exploits the singular structure of P umbilics and purple points, and reduces the problem to solving zero dimensional systems using Gröbner basis. Second, for cases where the zero-dimensional systems cannot be practically solved, we develop a certified plot algorithm at any fixed resolution. These contributions are respectively illustrated for Bezier surfaces of degree four and five

Robust evaluation of differential geometry properties using interval arithmetic techniques

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Ocean Engineering, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-82).This thesis presents a robust method for evaluating differential geometry properties of sculptured surfaces by using a validated ordinary differential equation (ODE) system solver based on interval arithmetic. Iso-contouring of curvature of a Bezier surface patch. computation of curvature lines of a Bezier surface patch and computation of geodesics of a Bezier surface patch are computed by the Validated Numerical Ordinary Differential Equations (VNODE) solver which employs rounded interval arithmetic methods. Then. the results generated from the VNODE program are compared with the results from Praxiteles code which uses non-validated ODE solvers operating in double precision floating point arithmetic for the solution of the same problems. From the results of these experiments, we find that the VNODE program performs these computations reliably, but at increased computational cost.by Chih-kuo Lee.S.M