Discrete Exterior Calculus and Application to Quadrangulation

Date: November 27, 2006 at 3pm
Speaker: Yiying Tong
In this talk, we present the notion of discrete differential forms and give a discrete version of the Hodge decomposition based on computation of cohomology --- a useful computational tool in various fields. As an application, we introduce a framework for quadrangle meshing of discrete manifolds. Our method hinges on extending the discrete Laplacian operator (used extensively in modeling and animation) to allow for line singularities and singularities with fractional indices. When assembled into a singularity graph, these line singularities are shown to considerably increase the design flexibility of quad meshing. In particular, control over edge alignments and mesh sizing are unique features of our novel approach. Another appeal of our method is its robustness and scalability from a numerical viewpoint: we simply solve a sparse linear system to generate a pair of piecewise-smooth scalar fields whose isocontours form a pure quadrangle tiling, with no T-junctions.