Penalized-distance volumetric skeleton algorithm

This paper introduces a refined general definition of a skeleton that is ba sed on a penalized-distance function and cannot create any of the degenerat e cases of the earlier CEASAR and TEASAR algorithms. Additionally, we provi de an algorithm that finds the skeleton accurately and rapidly. Our solutio n is fully automatic, which frees the user from having to engage in manual data preprocessing. We present the accurate skeletons computed on a number of test datasets. The algorithm is very efficient as demonstrated by the ru nning times which were all below seven minutes.