Spherical mapping for processing of 3D closed surfaces

The spherical harmonic (SPHARM) description is a powerful surface modeling technique used by many applications in biomedical imaging. However, earlier SPHARM studies employ a spherical parameterization procedure that can be applied only to voxel surfaces. This paper presents CALD, a new spherical parameterization algorithm that makes the SPHARM model applicable to general triangle meshes. The CALD algorithm starts from an initial mapping and performs novel local and global smoothing methods alternately until a solution is approached. This new algorithm can also be used for processing of 3D closed surfaces in many different areas, including medical image analysis, computer vision, and computer graphics.