Surface discontinuities in range images

Abstract

The paper presents a novel method for measuring a discontinuity in range images. The discontinuity — basically the qualitative surface characteristic — is assigned a quantitative value called measure of the surface discontinuity strength. Theoretical emphasis is put on estimation of C ¹ (crease) discontinuities. Three principal advantages are achieved. First, the discontinuity strength is computed locally. Second, the 2D problem of the surface discontinuity strength estimation is converted to a 1D problem along the direction of the principal curvature at each point on the surface. Third, the surface discontinuity strength can be computed from the continuous approximation of range data by polynomials.