Spheres, Molecules, and Hidden Surface Removal

We devise techniques to manipulate a collection of loosely interpenetrating spheres in threedimensional space. Our study is motivated by the representation and manipulation of molecular con gurations, modeled by a collection of spheres. We analyze the sphere model and point to its favorable properties that make it more easy to manipulate than an arbitrary collection of spheres. For this special sphere model we present e cient algorithms for computing its union boundary and for hidden surface removal. The e ciency and practicality of our approach are demonstrated by experiments on actual molecule data.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1994
• Where: COMPGEOM
• Authors: Dan Halperin, Mark H. Overmars
• Keywords: COMPGEOM 1994, Discrete Geometry, Special Sphere Model, Sphere Model, Threedimensional Space