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We describe and demonstrate an algorithm that takes as input an unorganized set of points xl,. . . . xn ⊂ R3 on or near an unknown manifold M, and produces as output a simplicial surface that approximates M. Neither the topology, the presence of boundaries, nor the geometry of M are assumed to be known in advance - all are inferred automatically from the data. This problem naturally arises in a variety of practical situations such as range scanning an object from multiple view points, recovery of biological shapes from two-dimensional slices, and interactive surface sketching.
Hoppe et al. (1992) studied this question.