Detection of salient curvature features on polygonal surfaces

We develop an approach for stable detection of perceptually salient curvatu re features on surfaces approximated by dense triangle meshes. The approach explores an "area degenerating" effect of the focal surface near its singu larities and combines together a new approximations of the mean and Gaussia n curvatures, nonlinear averaging of curvature maps, histogram-based curvat ure extrema filtering, and an image processing skeletonization procedure ad apted for triangular meshes. Finally we use perceptually significant curvat ure extrema triangles to enhance the Garland-Heckbert mesh decimation metho d.