Patent ID: 7477249

Claim:
A shape processor for imitating a shape of an object in a two-dimensional space, comprising: an approximation unit operable to generate a chain of basic tiles that imitates the shape of the object by connecting a basic tile with a following tile by an edge one by one from an initial tile, wherein each basic tile is chosen from a predetermined set of basic tiles generated by projecting an image of three faces of each convex hull of a lattice of convex hulls from a three-dimensional space onto the two-dimensional space, wherein each face is further divided by a division line that intersects with two vertices including a reference vertex of the convex hull that is shared by the three faces and a vertex of the face that is not connected to the reference vertex by an edge, such that the projected image of the faces are also divided; and a generation unit operable to generate a three-dimensional shape by specifying whether a set of one or more basic blocks is assigned to each convex hull of the lattice of convex hulls and corresponds a part or all of a chain of divided faces obtained by projecting the assigned basic blocks with the chain of basic tiles.