Hybrid Distance Field Computation

Distance fields are a widely investigated area within the area of Volume Graphics. Research is divided between applications; such as – skeletonisation, hypertexture, voxelisation, acceleration of rendering techniques, correlation and collision detection; and the fundamental algorithmic calculation of the distance fields. This paper concentrates on the latter by presenting a new method for calculating distance fields and comparing it with the current best approximate method and the true Euclidean distance field. Details are given of the algorithm, and the acceleration methods that are used for calculating the true distance field. Brief descriptions of applications for these accurate distance fields are given at the end of the paper.