TOPOLOGY SIMPLIFICATION FOR POLYGONAL VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

We present a topology simplifying approach that can be used for genus reductions, removal of protuberances, and repair of cracks in polygona l models in a unified framework. Our work is complementary to the exis ting work on geometry simplification of polygonal datasets and we demo nstrate that using topology and geometry simplifications together yiel ds superior multiresolution hierarchies than is possible by using eith er of them alone. Our approach can also address the important issue of repair of cracks in polygonal models, as well as for rapid identifica tion and removal of protuberances based on internal accessibility in p olygonal models. Our approach is based on identifying holes and cracks by extending the concept of a;shapes to polygonal meshes under the L- infinity distance metric. We then generate valid triangulations to fil l them using the intuitive notion of sweeping an L-infinity cube over the identified regions.