TY - JOUR T1 - Topology simplification for polygonal virtual environments JF - Visualization and Computer Graphics, IEEE Transactions on Y1 - 1998 A1 - El-Sana,J. A1 - Varshney, Amitabh KW - accessibility;intuitive KW - alpha;-shapes;L KW - approach;triangulations;unified KW - cube;L KW - datasets;polygonal KW - distance KW - environments;protuberance KW - framework;computational KW - geometry;topology;virtual KW - hierarchies;polygonal KW - infin; KW - meshes;polygonal KW - metric;genus KW - models;polygonal KW - notion;multiresolution KW - reality; KW - reductions;geometry KW - removal;topology KW - simplification;geometry KW - simplification;topology KW - simplifications;internal KW - simplifying KW - virtual AB - We present a topology simplifying approach that can be used for genus reductions, removal of protuberances, and repair of cracks in polygonal models in a unified framework. Our work is complementary to the existing work on geometry simplification of polygonal datasets and we demonstrate that using topology and geometry simplifications together yields superior multiresolution hierarchies than is possible by using either of them alone. Our approach can also address the important issue of repair of cracks in polygonal models, as well as for rapid identification and removal of protuberances based on internal accessibility in polygonal models. Our approach is based on identifying holes and cracks by extending the concept of alpha;-shapes to polygonal meshes under the L infin; distance metric. We then generate valid triangulations to fill them using the intuitive notion of sweeping an L infin; cube over the identified regions VL - 4 SN - 1077-2626 CP - 2 M3 - 10.1109/2945.694955 ER -