Abstract

This paper presents a unique modeling paradigm for hapticsbased editing on point set surfaces. In essence, the proposed technique leads to a novel methodology that collectively takes advantage of the potential of implicit surfaces, the strength of physics-based modeling techniques, the simplicity of point sampled surfaces, and the realm of haptic feedback. In particular, the point set surface in our system is evaluated as the zero set of the weighted sum of a collection of scalar trivariate B-spline functions defined over the local domain associated with each point sample. Among many other attractive properties, this novel implicit representation of the point set surfaces specifically enables users to easily modify the topology of the sculpted objects. Further integrating haptics with the inherent physics of our dynamic point set surfaces leads to an intuitive, efficient, and powerful 3D shape design framework directly founded upon point-set geometry. We have developed a variety of surface editing toolkits that can dynamically manipulate the implicit point set surface by sculpting and painting with haptics, and easily perform CSG boolean operations on arbitrarily shaped objects. Our research work greatly enhances the existing point rendering and modeling techniques with natural, yet efficient haptics sculpting, deformation, and painting.