Homotopic shape deformation

Abstract

An image warping method is presented that deforms an image continuously without foldover while observing a given set of trajectories of feature elements. Any intermediate image during the morph is homeomorphic to the initial image and the morphing process is a homotopy. The method permits points, line segments, and polygons to be included as features in the image. Techniques are described to make the deformation process smooth in spatial as well as temporal dimensions. An experimental result is included to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach and complexity of the algorithm is analyzed. Morphing between images that are topologically unequivalent is also briefly discussed.