Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture provide a process for generating an electronic model image constructed using polygons to represent the surface of an object. The process scans an object to generate a plurality of surface points in a common coordinate system and generates a initial polygon representation for the object surface by connecting surface points to nearest neighbors. The process then divides the initial polygon representation into a plurality of regions of common spatial orientation, slices the regions of common spatial orientation into slices that are oriented perpendicular to the common spatial orientation, determines line segments at locations in which the slices intersect the polygons in the initial polygon representation, combines the line segments into a stripe of continuous line segments that represents the surface of the scanned object at the location of the slice, generates a polygonal mesh using endpoints from adjacent stripes of continuous line segments within each region of common spatial orientation, and generates a polygonal mesh using endpoints of continuous line segments along adjacent edges of regions of common spatial orientation.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim