Scale Space Meshing of Raw Data Point Sets

Abstract

This paper develops a scale space strategy for orienting and meshing exactly and completely a raw point set. The scale space is based on the intrinsic heat equation, also called mean curvature motion (MCM). A simple iterative scheme implementing MCM directly on the raw point set is described, and a mathematical proof of its consistency with MCM is given. Points evolved by this MCM implementation can be trivially backtracked to their initial raw position. Therefore, both the orientation and mesh of the data point set obtained at a smooth scale can be transported back on the original. The gain in visual accuracy is demonstrated on archaeological objects by comparison with several state of the art meshing methods.