Hierarchical Representation of Surfaces Using 3D Wireframes

Abstract

In this paper a novel procedure for the representation of 3D surfaces using 3D hierarchical adaptive wireframes is presented. The 3D surfaces are generated by dense depth maps. The procedure is based on pyramidal analysis using the Quincunx Sampling Minimum Variance Interpolation (QMVINT) filters. The use of this method minimizes the variance (which is a measure of the entropy) of the interpolation error and therefore results to optimal compression of the wireframe information transmitted. At the same time, it produces a hierarchy of meshes based on quincunx sampling where coarse meshes are as similar to their finer versions as possible. Depending on its interpolation error and the available bitrate, each filtered sample is candidate for becoming a node of the wireframe. The result is a progressive sequence of wireframes consisting of more triangles wherever large variations in depth exist and fewer in uniform regions. Experimental results demonstrate the usage and performance of the algorithm.