Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!dgp.toronto.edu!stam
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.visualization
From: stam@dgp.toronto.edu (Jos Stam)
Subject: Re: surface rendering of fuzzy cloud
Message-ID: <1991Apr30.161904.810@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
References: <2594@amethyst.math.arizona.edu> <1991Apr29.204526.11197@bnlux1.bnl.gov> <1991Apr30.151851.26879@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Distribution: usa
Date: 30 Apr 91 20:19:04 GMT
Lines: 22

(Rick Ottolini) writes:

>>(Art Winfree) writes:
>>>
>>>Does anybody know how to render the surface of a fuzzy 3D cloud of
>>>data points? The "cloud" is actually supposed to be a 2D surface, but

>One idea is to leave the points as points, but add a normal for lighting
>models.  The visualization toolkit called SunVision (from Sun) contains this
>technique.  You could probably estimate the normal from the best fitting
>surface or ellipsoid.

One possibility is to interpolate your data, this will give you a smooth
function from which you can calculate normals.
There is a huge choice of interpolators. You'll probably only need to consider
data points within a small neighbourhood to calculate your interpolator.
If you think this might help you and you want more info, e-mail me at:

stam@dgp.toronto.edu

cheers,
Jos