Dynamic Query Interface for 3d Shape Search

Our 3D Engineering Shape Search System (3DESS), which uses the skeletal graph as one of its shape features to represent objects, has revealed the potential of graph-based representation for searching 3D models. In this paper, a dynamic user interface, which allows a user to customize the query by reusing the existing skeletal graph, shows another merit of the skeletal graph representation. This innovative user interface serves two purposes: (i) an iconic object for sketching and visualizing the skeletal abstraction, which is a 3D geometric representation of the skeletal graph, and (ii) a dynamic query interface which enables the user to customize the skeletal abstraction of the retrieved model as a new query. In order to more closely represent the original model and more precisely evaluate the shape similarity during the search process, a method of refining the preliminary skeletal graph is presented and implemented. This process elaborates the skeletal abstraction to be closer to the shape of the model. Thus, the skeletal graph contains both the essential topology and the geometry information of the original model. The results show that the retrieved skeletal abstraction matches the skeleton of the original model effectively, and the search retrieval based on the customized skeletal graph is sensitive to the user’s intention.