Polygonization of volumetric skeletons with junctions

This article presents a method for polygonizing skeleton structures computed from volumetric data, mainly of a thin-plate object. The main idea of our method is to simplify the topological structure of volumetric skeletons by sub-sampling. Given volumetric skeletons and distance fields of binarized volumes, we first apply sub-sampling of the skeleton voxels so that the junction and boundary voxels are preferentially sampled. By using sampled points as Voronoi sites, we compute Voronoi diagrams on the skeleton voxels. Polygonization can be computed by using connectivity of the diagram. This approach can build correct junctions where the skeleton branches in several directions, whereas conventional voxel-based methods tend to result in small cavities around them. This paper also demonstrates several results computed from CT-scanned engineering objects.

► We propose a method for polygonizing medial surfaces from volumes. ► Our method can compute non-manifold medial surface. ► Moreover, our method can also extract skeletons and medial surface at once.