Mesh extraction from a regular grid structure using adjacency matrix

Abstract

Crisis management is a modern phenomenon brought about by natural disasters and acts of terrorism. Building a modern crisis management response program needs a multi-disciplinary architecture and accurate, up-to-date, real-world data. The creation of virtual environments depicting critical infrastructure buildings and conduits between these highly interconnected man-made structures is a complex procedure. The crossover between games technology and use of real-world map data for real-world simulations is becoming more common with the advancements of computer hardware and software, and the accuracy of real-world map data. However, there are many problems with using real-world map data for simulation due to the large potential of missing and error prone data involved in this big data. Within this work we use three types of data sets; Ordnance Survey data, LiDAR data, and OpenStreetMap data to provide accurate map and 3D environment information for crisis management systems. Combining these large data-sets can reduce errors and retrieve missing data for use within a modern game engine for visualization analysis. We propose a novel technique for data extraction using adjacency matrices for custom model generation corresponding to real-world structures such as landscapes, buildings, road systems, area boundaries, or a combination of these at different resolutions.