Abstract
In this paper we present a novel model for computing the oriented normal field on a point cloud. Differently from previous two-stage approaches, our method integrates the unoriented normal estimation and the consistent normal orientation into one variational framework. The normal field with consistent orientation is obtained by minimizing a combination of the Dirichlet energy and the coupled-orthogonality deviation, which controls the normals perpendicular to and continuously varying on the underlying shape. The variational model leads to solving an eigenvalue problem. If unoriented normal field is provided, the model can be modified for consistent normal orientation. We also present experiments which demonstrate that our estimates of oriented normal vectors are accurate for smooth point clouds, and robust in the presence of noise, and reliable for surfaces with sharp features, e.g., corners, ridges, close-by sheets and thin structures.
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Wang, J., Yang, Z. & Chen, F. A variational model for normal computation of point clouds. Vis Comput 28, 163–174 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-011-0607-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-011-0607-6