Advisory Committee Chair
John K Johnstone
Advisory Committee Members
Nikolai Chernov
Thamar Solorio
Alan Sprague
Edward Swan
Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2011
Degree Name by School
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
When analyzing multiple mesh models, an important first step is to find the rigid transform that best aligns them. Many mesh alignment techniques exist, but because they treat input meshes as a collection of surface samples, they tend to be sensitive to surface variations between those meshes. We instead wish to align shapes based upon an analysis of mesh topology, thus making it possible to align shapes with similar part structures but varying surface geometry. To this end, we present a novel algorithm that extracts a curve-skeleton from a mesh based on its connectivity, rather than its surface geometry. We show that this method is robust to surface variation and achieves consistent results across shapes in the same object class. We then will present our system for mesh alignment based on our topological analysis of input meshes, and we will show that our technique is able to align shapes with similar part structures but differing surface shapes.
Recommended Citation
O'Gwynn, Benjamin David, "A Topological Approach to Shape Analysis and Alignment" (2011). All ETDs from UAB. 2618.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/2618