A mechanism of automatic 3D object modeling

The symbolic representation of 3D objects is the fundamental knowledge for computer systems to understand the environment. This knowledge is usually assumed to exist in a computer but can also be acquired by accumulating spatial features extracted from sensory inputs at different viewing directions. This paper first investigates surface visibility and, then, after introducing mass vector chains (MVC), discusses the relationship between MVC and the spatial closure of object models. An automatic modeling mechanism is established with the observation that the boundary of an object is closed only if the MVC of its model is closed or, alternatively, the tail-to-head vector of an unclosed MVC estimates the visible direction of the missing surfaces. Experimental results and an algorithm are also given at the end