Hyperquadrics: Smoothly deformable shapes with convex polyhedral bounds

We present a new approach to the problem of modeling smoothly deformable shapes with convex polyhedral bounds. Our hyperquadric modeling primitives, which include superquadrics as a special case, can be viewed as hyperplanar slices of deformed hyperspheres. As the original hypersphere is deformed to its bounding hypercube, the slices undergo corresponding smooth deformations to convex polytopes. The possible shape classes include arbitrary convex polygons and polyhedra, as well as taperings and distortions that are not naturally included within the conventional superquadric framework. By generalizing Blinn's “blobby” approach to modeling complex objects, we construct single equations for nonconvex, composite shapes starting with our basic convex primitives. Hyperquadrics are of potential interest for the generation of synthetic images, for automated image interpretation and for psychological models of geometric shape representation, manipulation, and perception.