ItkQuadEdgeMesh: A Discrete Orientable 2-Manifold Data Structure for Image Processing

There is nowadays an increasing need in interaction between discrete surfaces (2-manifolds) and images. More specifically, segmentation and registration of n-dimensional images are taking advantage of a priori geometrical information, most often provided as discrete 2-manifolds. Most of the publicly available libraries are oriented either toward mesh processing or image processing. Through a careful study we will show that none of those libraries are complete enough to fullfill image, surface and joint image-surface interaction. We propose to implement in ITK library a powerful 2-manifold data structure. The choice of ITK was driven by the fact that it provides the best base framework along with a strong n-dimensional image kernel. Based on a Quad-Edge data structure, it has been specifically tailored not only to represent orientable 2-manifolds (surfaces of real objects) but also ease further processing. We illustrate the integration of the design into ITK as a native object, enhancing existing algorithms. We also illustrate the power of the new design for further surface processing.