Efficient Computation of the Topology of Level Sets

摘要

The paper introduces two efficient algorithms that compute the Contour Tree of a 3D scalar field F and it augmented version with the Betti numbers of each isosurface. The Contour Tree is a fundamental data structure in scientific visualization that is used to pre-process the domain mesh to allow optimal computation of iso-surfaces with minimal storage overhead. The Contour Tree can be also used to build user interfaces reporting the complete topological characterization of a scalar field.