Fast triangular mesh approximation of surface data using wavelet coefficients

This paper proposes a new, fast, triangular mesh approximation method for t he 3D visualization of surface data. Using spatio-frequency localization ch aracteristics and directional information of wavelet coefficients, we deter mine local complexities of surface data and approximate the data to a prope r triangular mesh. The proposed algorithm is quite simple, and the computat ional cost is low due to the direct use of wavelet coefficients for vertex removal. The computer simulation results for terrain data show that the pro posed algorithm is excellent for fast 3D visualization.