Polyhedral approximation and practical convex hull algorithm for certain classes of voxel sets

In this paper we introduce an algorithm for the creation of polyhedral approximations for certain kinds of digital objects in a three-dimensional space. The objects are sets of voxels represented as strongly connected subsets of an abstract cell complex. The proposed algorithm generates the convex hull of a given object and modifies the hull afterwards by recursive repetitions of generating convex hulls of subsets of the given voxel set or subsets of the background voxels. The result of this method is a polyhedron which separates object voxels from background voxels. The objects processed by this algorithm and also the background voxel components inside the convex hull of the objects are restricted to have genus 0. The second aim of this paper is to present some practical improvements to the discussed convex hull algorithm to reduce computation time. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.