Curvature maps for 3D CBR

Along with images and videos, 3D models have recently gained increasing attention for a number of reasons: advancements in 3D hardware and software technologies, their ever decreasing prices and increasing availability, affordable 3D authoring tools, and the establishment of open standards for 3D data interchange. In this paper we address the problem of content-based retrieval of 3D models. The solution we present here relies on the description of each model by means a curvature map: after an initial pre-processing of the model, differential properties of points on the surface of the 3D object are evaluated; the model surface is then warped into an ellipsoid, and is mapped onto a 2D image retaining curvature information of the original model. Matching is performed by comparing the 2D map of the query against the 2D maps of the database models. This method has been implemented in a prototype system supporting retrieval by content of 3D objects through a Web interface.