Multi-Scale Salient Features for Analyzing 3D Shapes

Extracting feature regions on mesh models is crucial for shape analysis and understanding. It can be widely used for various 3D content-based applications in graphics and geometry field. In this paper, we present a new algorithm of extracting multi-scale salient features on meshes. This is based on robust estimation of curvature on multiple scales. The coincidence between salient feature and the scale of interest can be established straightforwardly, where detailed feature appears on small scale and feature with more global shape information shows up on large scale. We demonstrate this kind of multi-scale description of features accords with human perception and can be further used for several applications as feature classification and viewpoint selection. Experiments exhibit that our method as a multi-scale analysis tool is very helpful for studying 3D shapes.