In this report I describe a nonlinear optimization model for reducing visual clutter in a plot of overlapping contours that represent aggregate scatter data. The contours are represented as smooth, closed, uniform B-splines. My method begins with a preprocessing step in which contours are converted into a piecewise linear representation. Then I solve a nonlinear optimization program which elimi...

We reconstruct pipe-shaped objects from a set of contours, each of which is extracted from an image representing a slice sampled from 3D volume data. The contours are formed by connecting the intersection points between rays cast from a central pixel of an image slice and the boundary of the shape. The edges on the contours are classified into several types, which are exploited in triangulating...

Adults are skilled at perceiving subjective contours in regions without any local image information (e.g., Ginsburg, 1975; Kanizsa, 1976). Here we examined the development of this skill and the effect thereon of the support ratio (i.e., the ratio of the physically specified contours to the total contour length). Children (6-, 9-, and 12-year-olds) and adults discriminated between fat and skinny...