Generation of unit-width curve skeletons based on valence driven spatial median (VDSM)

Abstract

3D medial axis (skeleton) extracted by a skeletonization algorithm is a compact representation of a 3D model. Among all connectivity-preservation skeletonization methods, 3D thinning algorithms are generally faster than the others. However, most 3D thinning algorithms cannot guarantee generating a unit-width curve skeleton, which is desirable in many applications, e.g. 3D object similarity match and retrieval. This paper presents a novel valence driven spatial median (VDSM) algorithm, which eliminates crowded regions and ensures that the output skeleton is unit-width. The proposed technique can be used to refine skeletons generated from 3D skeletonization algorithms to achieve unit-width. We tested the VDSM algorithm on 3D models with very different topologies. Experimental results demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2008.