3D Part Segmentation: A New Physics-Based Approach

We propose a novel approach to 3D part segmen-tation. From physics it is known that on the surface of a charged conductor, charge tends to accumulate at a sharp convexity and vanish at a sharp concav-ity. Thus object part boundaries, which are usually denoted by a sharp surface concavity, can be detected by locating surface points exhibiting local charge minima. Beginning with multiview range data of a 3D object, we simulate the electrical charge distribution over an object's surface which has been tessellated by a triangular mesh. We detect the deep surface concav-ities by tracing local charge density minima and then decompose the object into parts at these points.