STRUCTURAL APPROACH TO SHAPE ANALYSIS USING MIRRORING AXES

A new structural decomposition of an object based on the concept of symmetry is explored. Most objects of interest are not symmetric, but nevertheless they can be decomposed into symmetrical subparts, where each symmetrical subpart can be folded along a mirroring axis. The mirroring axes, which are piecewise linear but not necessarily straight lines, provide a structural description of an object by splitting the object into symmetrical subparts. The new approach considers the interior of a shape (i.e., holes are allowed) and the shape under consideration can be built of any number of connected components. An algorithm for finding such a structural decomposition is given and the results are shown. © 1979 Academic Press, Inc. All rights reserved.