SHRINKWRAP: 3D MODEL ABSTRACTION FOR REMOTE SENSING SIMULATION

Remote sensing simulations often require the use of 3D models of objects of interest. There are a multitude of these models available from various commercial sources. There are image processing, computational, database storage, and data access advantages to having a regularized, encapsulating, triangular mesh representing the surface of a 3D object model. However, this is usually not how these models are stored. They can have too much detail in some areas, and not enough detail in others. They can have a mix of planar geometric primitives (triangles, quadrilaterals, n-sided polygons) representing not only the surface of the model, but also interior features. And the exterior mesh is usually not regularized nor encapsulating. This paper presents a method called SHRINKWRAP which can be used to process 3D object models to achieve output models having the aforementioned desirable traits. The method works by collapsing an encapsulating sphere, which has a regularized triangular mesh on its surface, onto the surface of the model. A GUI has been developed to make it easy to leverage this capability. The SHRINKWRAP processing chain and use of the GUI are described and illustrated.