Conformal mesh parameterization using discrete Calabi flow

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce discrete Calabi flow to the graphics research community and present a novel conformal mesh parameterization algorithm. Calabi energy has a succinct and explicit format. Its corresponding flow is conformal and convergent under certain conditions. Our method is based on the Calabi energy and Calabi flow with solid theoretical and mathematical base. We demonstrate our approach on dozens of models and compare it with other related flow based methods, such as the well-known Ricci flow and conformal equivalence of triangle meshes (CETM). Our experiments show that the performance of our algorithm is comparably the same with other methods. The discrete Calabi flow in our method provides another perspective on conformal flow and conformal parameterization.