Data Management Tools for Surfaces and Volume Data

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Surfaces abound in advanced scientific analysis and computing. The basic geometry of virtual environments, the isosurfaces of volume data, and the subdivision surfaces of synthetic environments are some examples. Effective utilization and data management of surfaces requires the ability to query archives of surfaces to look for particular surface shapes and features. Central to this capability is an efficient means to measure the distance between two surfaces. The objective comparison of algorithms that produce surfaces requires a similar precise and quantitative measure of the surfaces with each other or with an ideal. This project will develop a new methodology for computing the distance between two surfaces. It will also develop efficient basic techniques and algorithms that will bring this technology into everyday use in areas of searching databases of surfaces and comparing algorithms on surfaces.