A new mesh-growing algorithm for fast surface reconstruction

This paper presents a new high-performance method for triangular mesh generation based on a mesh-growing approach. Starting from a seed triangle, the algorithm grows the triangular mesh by selecting a new point based on the Gabriel 2—Simplex criterion. This criterion can be considered to be a good approximation of the 2D Delaunay if the point cloud is well-sampled and not too rough. The performance of the proposed method is compared with that of the Cocone family and that of Ball Pivoting as regards the tessellation rate and the quality of the surface being generated from some benchmark point clouds and artificially noised test cases. The results are analysed and critically discussed.

► A new surface reconstruction method based on a mesh growing approach is presented.
► Surface reconstruction is carried out by using the Gabriel two—Simplex Criterion.
► For well-sampled and not rough point clouds it is similar to the 2D Delaunay approach.
► The proposed method is competitive for tessellation rate, quality and defectiveness.