Sample Shape
Abstract
A major task in non-rigid shape analysis is to retrieve correspondences between two almost isometric 3D objects. An important tool for this task are geometric feature descriptors. Ideally, a feature descriptor should be invariant under isometric transformations and robust to small elastic deformations. A successful class of feature descriptors employs the spectral decomposition of the Laplace-Beltrami operator. Important examples are the heat kernel signature using the heat equation and the more recent wave kernel signature applying the Schrödinger equation from quantum mechanics. In this work we propose a novel feature descriptor which is based on the classic wave equation that describes e.g. sound wave propagation. We explore this new model by discretizing the underlying partial differential equation. Thereby we consider two different time integration methods. By a detailed evaluation at hand of a standard shape data set we demonstrate that our approach may yield significant improvements over state of the art methods for finding correct shape correspondences.