Geometric Accuracy Analysis for Discrete Surface Approximation
Junfei Dai, Wei Luo, Shing-Tung Yau and Xianfeng Gu
Proceedings of Geometric Modeling and Processing 2006
In geometric modeling and processing, computer graphics, smooth sur-
faces are approximated by discrete triangular meshes reconstructed from
sample points on the surface. A fundamental problem is to design rig-
orous algorithms to guarantee the geometric approximation accuracy by
controlling the sampling density.
This theoretic work gives explicit formula to the bounds of Hausdorff
distance, normal distance and Riemannian metric distortion between the
smooth surface and the discrete mesh in terms of principle curvature and
the radii of geodesic circum-circle of the triangles. These formula are
applied to design sampling density.
Furthermore, we prove the meshes induced from the Delaunay trian-
gulations of the dense samples on a smooth surface are convergent to the
smooth surface under both Hausdorff distance and normal fields. The
Riemannian metrics and the Laplace-Beltrami operators on the meshes
are also convergent. These theoretic results lay down the foundation to
guarantee the approximation accuracy of many algorithms in geometric
modeling and processing.