Normal and Feature Approximations from Noisy Point Clouds

We consider the problem of approximating normal and feature sizes of a surface from point cloud data that may be noisy. These problems are central to many applications dealing with point cloud data. In the noise-free case, the normals and feature sizes can be approximated by the centers of a set of unique large Delaunay balls called polar balls. In presence of noise, polar balls do not necessarily remain large and hence their centers may not be good for normal and feature size approximations. Earlier works suggest that some large Delaunay balls can play the role of polar balls. However, these results were short in explaining how the big Delaunay balls should be chosen for reliable approximations and how the approximation error depends on various factors. We provide new analyses that fill these gaps. In particular, they lead to new algorithms for practical and reliable normal and feature approximations.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2006
• Where: FSTTCS
• Authors: Tamal K. Dey, Jian Sun
• Keywords: Delaunay Balls, Feature Size, FSTTCS 2006, Polar Balls, Software Engineering