Mesh analysis via breadth-first traversal

Abstract

This paper describes a novel tool for analysis of polygonal surface meshes, based on a modified breadth-first traversal of mesh vertices. The value of this technique lies in the fact that it relies only on mesh connectivity, making it invariant to model pose and transformation. It does this by leveraging the close relationship between geometry and connectivity in polygonal meshes. A breadth-first traversal of the mesh is used to construct a simplified graph representation of the mesh, where each vertex in the new graph is associated with some subset of vertices in the original mesh. This graph provides valuable information about the nature of the mesh's shape. This paper discusses the modified breadth-first traversal, the construction of the new graph and some ways in which this graph can be used for shape analysis on the original mesh.