Patent ID: 7626584

Claim:
A method for determining a three-dimensional surface of an object using a computer, the method comprising: defining coordinates of a plurality of points on the surface of the object; defining a three-dimensional matrix of cells that contains the object, each cell of the three-dimensional matrix of cells having a center, and a value being able to be associated with each cell of the three-dimensional matrix of cells; determining a distance between the center of each cell of the three-dimensional matrix of cells and a closest point of the plurality of points on the surface of the object; setting the value associated with each of a first portion of cells of the three-dimensional matrix of cells to a first preset value; determining the value associated with each cell of the three-dimensional matrix of cells using the computer, with the exception of the first portion of cells, by means of the following formula F ⁡ ( x _ i , t + 1 ) = F ⁡ ( x _ i , t ) · v i + w · ∑ j ⁢ F ⁡ ( x _ j , t ) · v j v i + w · ∑ j ⁢ v j where x i represents coordinates of the center of the i_th cell, F( x i ,t) represents the value of the i_th cell at time t, v i represents the distance, w represents a second preset value, and j indicates a neighbourhood of cells of the i_th cell; determining a sum in modulus of a variation of the value associated with each cell between the time t and the time t+1; and repeating said determining the value associated with each cell of the three-dimensional matrix of cells if the sum in modulus is greater than a third preset value.