Motion-based mesh segmentation using augmented silhouettes

Motion-based segmentation, the problem of detecting rigid parts of an articulated three-dimensional shape, is an open challenge that has several applications in mesh animation, compression, and interpolation. We present a novel approach that uses the visual perception of the shape and its motion to distinguish the rigid from the deformable parts of the object. Using twodimensional projections of the different shape poses with respect to a number of different view points, we derive a set of onedimensional curves, which form a superset of the mesh silhouettes. Analysing these augmented silhouettes, we identify the vertices of the mesh that correspond to the deformable parts, and a subsequent clustering approach, which is based on the diffusion distance, yields a motion-based segmentation of the shape.