From a 2D shape to a string structure using the symmetry set

Abstract

Many attempts have been made to represent families of 2D shapes in a simpler way. These approaches lead to so-called structures as the Symmetry Set (SS) and a subset of it, the Medial Axis (MA). In this paper a novel method to represent the SS as a string is presented. This structure is related to so-called arc-annotated sequences, and allows faster and simpler query algorithms for comparison and database applications than graph structures, used to represent the MA. Example shapes are shown and their data structures derived. They show the stability and robustness of the SS and its string representation. © Springer-Verlag 2004.