A Selective Refinement Approach for Computing the Distance Functions of Curves

Abstract

We present an adaptive signed distance transform algorithm for curves in the plane. A hierarchy of bounding boxes is required for the input curves. We demonstrate the algorithm on the isocontours of a turbulence simulation. The algorithm provides guaranteed error bounds with a selective refinement approach. The domain over which the signed distance function is desired is adaptively triangulated and piecewise discontinuous linear approximations are constructed within each triangle. The resulting transform performs work only were requested and does not rely on a preset sampling rate or other constraints.