Surface geometry is often modeled with irregular triangle meshes. The process of remeshing refers to approximating such geometry using a mesh with (semi)-regular connectivity, which has advantages for many graphics applications. However, current techniques for remeshing arbitrary surfaces create only semi-regular meshes. The original mesh is typically decomposed into a set of disk-like charts, onto which the geometry is parametrized and sampled. In this paper, we propose to remesh an arbitrary surface onto a completely regular structure we call a geometry image. It captures geometry as a simple 2D array of quantized points. Surface signals like normals and colors are stored in similar 2D arrays using the same implicit surface parametrization — texture coordinates are absent. To create a geometry image, we cut an arbitrary mesh along a network of edge paths, and parametrize the resulting single chart onto a square. Geometry images can be encoded using traditional image compression algorithms, such as wavelet-based coders.

We solve the problem of computing global conformal parameterizations for surfaces with nontrivial topologies. The parameterization is global in the sense that it preserves the conformality everywhere except for a few points, and has no boundary of discontinuity. We analyze the structure of the space of all global conformal parameterizations of a given surface and find all possible solutions by constructing a basis of the underlying linear solution space. This space has a natural structure solely determined by the surface geometry, so our computing result is independent of connectivity, insensitive to resolution, and independent of the algorithms to discover it. Our algorithm is based on the properties of gradient fields of conformal maps, which are closedness, harmonity, conjugacy, duality and symmetry. These properties can be formulated by sparse linear systems, so the method is easy to implement and the entire process is automatic. We also introduce a novel topological modification method to improve the uniformity of the parameterization. Based on the global conformal parameterization of a surface, we can construct a conformal atlas and use it to build conformal geometry images which have very accurate reconstructed normals.

Many high-resolution surfaces are created through isosurface extraction from volumetric representations, obtained by 3D photography, CT, or MRI. Noise inherent in the acquisition process can lead to geometrical and topological errors. Reducing geometrical errors during reconstruction is well studied. However, isosurfaces often contain many topological errors in the form of tiny handles. These nearly invisible artifacts hinder subsequent operations like mesh simplification, remeshing, and parametrization. In this article we present a practical method for removing handles in an isosurface. Our algorithm makes an axis-aligned sweep through the volume to locate handles, compute their sizes, and selectively remove them. The algorithm is designed to facilitate out-of-core execution. It finds the handles by incrementally constructing and analyzing a Reeb graph. The size of a handle is measured by a short nonseparating cycle. Handles are removed robustly by modifying the volume rather than attempting “mesh surgery. ” Finally, the volumetric modifications are spatially localized to preserve geometrical detail. We demonstrate topology simplification on several complex models, and show its benefits for subsequent surface processing.

and precomputation of solid textures. The stretch caused by a given parameterization determines the sampling rate on the surface. In this article, we present an automatic parameterization method for segmenting a surface into patches that are then flattened with little stretch. Many objects consist of regions of relatively simple shapes, each of which has a natural parameterization. Based on this observation, we describe a three-stage feature-based patch creation method for manifold surfaces. The first two stages, genus reduction and feature identification, are performed with the help of distance-based surface functions. In the last stage, we create one or two patches for each feature region based on a covariance matrix of the feature’s surface points. To reduce stretch during patch unfolding, we notice that stretch is a 2 × 2 tensor, which in ideal situations is the identity. Therefore, we use the Green-Lagrange tensor to measure and to guide the optimization process. Furthermore, we allow the boundary vertices of a patch to be optimized by adding scaffold triangles. We demonstrate our feature-based patch creation and patch unfolding methods for several textured models. Finally, to evaluate the quality of a given parameterization, we describe an image-based error measure that takes into account stretch, seams, smoothness, packing efficiency, and surface visibility.

Surface texturing aids the visualization of polygonal meshes by providing additional surface orientation cues and feature annotations. Such texturing is usually implemented via texture mapping, which is easier and more effective when the distortion of the mapping from the surface to the texture map is kept small. We have

In this paper, we propose a new quadrilateral remeshing method for manifolds of arbitrary genus that is at once general, flexible, and efficient. Our technique is based on the use of smooth harmonic scalar fields defined over the mesh. Given such a field, we compute its gradient field and a second vector field that is everywhere orthogonal to the gradient. We then trace integral lines through these vector fields to sample the mesh. The two nets of integral lines together are used to form the polygons of the output mesh. Curvature-sensitive spacing of the lines provides for anisotropic meshes that adapt to the local shape. Our scalar field construction allows users to exercise extensive control over the structure of the final mesh. The entire process is performed without computing an explicit parameterization of the surface, and is thus applicable to manifolds of any genus without the need for cutting the surface into patches. Key words: quad-dominant remeshing, gradient flow tracing, harmonic fields, harmonic 1-forms 1

We introduce a novel method for the construction of discrete conformal mappings from (regions of) embedded meshes to the plane. Our approach is based on circle patterns, i.e., arrangements of circles---one for each face---with prescribed intersection angles. Given these angles the circle radii follow as the unique minimizer of a convex energy. The method has two principal advantages over earlier approaches based on discrete harmonic mappings: (1) it supports very flexible boundary conditions ranging from natural boundaries to control of the boundary shape via prescribed curvatures; (2) the solution is based on a convex energy as a function of logarithmic radius variables with simple explicit expressions for gradients and Hessians, greatly facilitating robust and efficient numerical treatment. We demonstrate the versatility and performance of our algorithm with a variety of examples.

We present an algorithm for finding shortest surface non-separating cycles in graphs embedded on surfaces in O(g 3/2 V 3/2 log V + g 5/2 V 1/2) time, where V is the number of vertices in the graph and g is the genus of the surface. If g = o(V 1/3−ε), this represents a considerable improvement over previous results by Thomassen, and Erickson and Har-Peled. We also give algorithms to find a shortest non-contractible cycle in O(g O(g) V 3/2) time, which improves previous results for fixed genus. This result can be applied for computing the (non-separating) face-width of embedded graphs. Using similar ideas we provide the first near-linear running time algorithm for computing the face-width of a graph embedded on the projective plane, and an algorithm to find the face-width of embedded toroidal graphs in O(V 5/4 log V) time. 1

We present a method for isotropic remeshing of arbitrary genus surfaces. The method is based on a mesh adaptation process, namely, a sequence of local modifications performed on a copy of the original mesh, while referring to the original mesh geometry. The algorithm has three stages. In the first stage the required number or vertices are generated by iterative simplification or refinement. The second stage performs an initial vertex partition using an area-based relaxation method. The third stage achieves precise isotropic vertex sampling prescribed by a given density function on the mesh. We use a modification of Lloyd’s relaxation method to construct a weighted centroidal Voronoi tessellation of the mesh. We apply these iterations locally on small patches of the mesh that are parameterized into the 2D plane. This allows us to handle arbitrary complex meshes with any genus and any number of boundaries. The efficiency and the accuracy of the remeshing process is achieved using a patch-wise parameterization technique.

Every compact orientable boundaryless surface M can be cut along simple loops with a common point v0, pairwise disjoint except at v0, so that the resulting surface is a topological disk; such a set of loops is called a system of loops for M. The resulting disk may be viewed as a polygon in which the sides are pairwise identified on the surface; it is called a polygonal schema. Assuming that M is a combinatorial surface, and that each edge has a given length, we are interested in a shortest (or optimal) system of loops homotopic to a given one, drawn on the vertex-edge graph of M. We prove that each loop of such an optimal system is a shortest loop among all simple loops in its homotopy class. We give an algorithm to build such a system, which has polynomial running time if the lengths of the edges are uniform. As a byproduct, we get an algorithm with the same running time to compute a shortest simple loop homotopic to a given simple loop.