Patent ID: 6307551
Filing Date: 2001-10-23
Classification: G06T

Abstract:
A computer implemented method for increasing the level of detail of a polygonal surface, comprising steps of:providing data in a memory of a computer for representing a polygonal surface defined at least by a plurality of vertices, triangles and edges;providing a list of marked edges;cutting through the marked edges thereby creating new boundary vertices;applying displacements to the new boundary vertices thereby generating at least one hole in the surface, the hole being bounded by the displaced new boundary vertices; andfilling the at least one hole with a forest of triangles,wherein each vertex is specified by a tuple of vertex coordinates, each triangle is specified by a triple of vertex indices, each edge is specified as a pair of vertex indices of a triangle, where a corner is a pair formed with a triangle and a vertex index of that triangle, where each vertex has a vertex ID, each triangle has a triangle ID, and each corner has a corner ID, andwherein the step of cutting through marked edges comprises:determining a set of vertices to be processed;forming corner groups from the corners associated with each vertex of the set of vertices;choosing a representative of a corner group as a corner of lowest ID;for each vertex of the set for which the associated number of corner groups is larger than one, replacing the corner group of lowest ID with the vertex; andfor each said vertex, and for each additional corner group, replacing the corner group with a new vertex, such that new vertex IDs are attributed consecutively to corner groups in order of increasing corner group representative ID.