Method and apparatus for generating atomic parts of graphic representation through skeletonization for interactive visualization applications

The present invention relates generally to computer graphics and solid modeling, and more particularly, to methods and apparatuses for representing and displaying an object of its skeleton, atomic parts, and hierarchy. This invention presents a method to extract atomic parts of a graphics model using its skeleton. A skeleton is a fully collapsed body of the model, and is obtained through a novel way to contract edges of the model. From the skeleton, atomic parts or features each is a part of the model that is distinctively autonomous from its connected or neighboring body is formed through space sweeping. Next, atomic parts can be connected into a hierarchy depending on the eventual interactive visualization applications. The operation of the method includes the steps of interactively computing, displaying and recording skeleton, atomic parts, and object hierarchies in response to user commands to, for example, modifying skeleton, atomic parts or object hierarchies. Object hierarchies are useful to various applications such as object scene management, view-dependent simplification, mesh-mapping, morphing, and building bounding volume hierarchies.