Three-Dimensional Image. A Parallel Algorithm for an Octree Generation from a Polyhedral Shape Representation.

We propose a parallel algorithm that efficiently generates an octree from a polyhedral shape representation. The algorithm is simple and applicable to general (non-convex) objects. The parallelized algorithm is based on two ideas for the assignment of multiple processors. The algorithm was implemented and tested on MIMD multi-processors having a shared memory. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method : for example, only 2.5 seconds are required to generate an octree shape representation from a polyhedral object having 148 polygons. We discuss the performance of the proposed parallel algorithm and the features of the parallelism.