Extending the Hough transform to recognize and approximate space curves in 3D models

Feature curves are space curves identified by color or curvature variations in a shape, which are crucial for human perception (Biederman, 1995). Detecting these characteristic lines in 3D digital models becomes important for recognition and representation processes. For recognizing plane curves in images, the Hough transform (HT) provided a very good solution to the problem. It selects the best-fitting curve in a dictionary of families of curves through a voting procedure that makes it robust to noise and missing parts. Since 3D digital models are often obtained by scanning real objects and may have many defects, the HT has been extended to recognize and approximate space curves in 3D models that correspond to relevant features

This work overviews three HT-based different approaches for identifying and approximating spatial profiles of points extracted from point clouds or meshes. A first attempt at this extension involved projecting the spatial points onto the regression plane, thus reducing the problem to planar recognition and using families of plane curves. A second approach has been proposed to recognize spatial profiles that cannot be projected onto the regression plane, using two types of space curve families. Unfortunately, the main drawback of methods based on traditional HT is that it requires prior knowledge of which family of curves to look for.

To overcome this limitation, a third method has been developed that provides a piecewise space curve approximation using specific parametric polynomial curves. Additionally, free-form curves that a parametric or implicit form cannot express can be represented using this technique.

In the paper, we also analyze the pros and cons of the various approaches and how they managed and reduced the HT's computational cost, given the large number of parameters introduced when families of space curves are considered.