Topology-based reasoning on non-manifold shapes

TitleTopology-based reasoning on non-manifold shapes
Publication TypeConference Papers
Year of Publication2006
AuthorsDe Floriani L, Hui A, Papaleo L
Conference NameProceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Shapes and Semantics, Matsushima, Japan
Date Published2006///
Abstract

Topological information is a promising resource to research in shape-understanding as it provides a high-level description of the characteristics of a shape,
and such high-level description often has strong association with the semantics of an
object. The Shape Acquisition and Processing (SAP) ontology has been designed to
maintain useful information of a model. We propose here an extension to the SAP
ontology, that addresses the non-manifold properties of a model. Useful information
about the connectivity of an object can be obtained based on an analysis of its non-
manifold properties, because the structure of a non-manifold object can be considered
as a graph of manifold parts connected together at non-manifold joints. The manifold
parts are often pieces that have strong semantic associations. In this work, we describe
the type of non-manifold properties, the various types of connected components in
a non-manifold object and their semantical significance. We address how the Euler’
characteristics of a non-manifold object can be found based on such information. All
such information are extractable from a model using TopMesh, a tool that we have
developed. In this work, we also describe the features of TopMesh, namely, all the
topological properties it extracts.