CG Techniques for Terrain Representation

本研究的重点是利用计算几何技术对地形数据进行表示和运算。这包括数据压缩、可见性、移动性和排水等操作，表示多个相关数据层、多个数据源相关性和非线性表示。该项目认识到地形的特殊性质，包括其低水平的连续性，其长期相关性（如流域），以及其垂直不对称性（有许多局部最大值，但很少局部最小值）。新的地形改造方法包括挖土、沉积和侵蚀。计算空间和时间的效率也是一个优先考虑的问题。地形建模和计算制图的重要性得到了许多专门从事这方面工作的公司的证明，还有一些数据库公司试图将这些功能添加到他们的通用产品中。由于来自激光雷达和IFSAR等来源的数据量不断增加，新技术是必要的。这里开发的技术将适用于越来越广泛的领域，从环境规划到月球和火星以及地球上的无线电通信，以及国防。能见度确定的应用范围从最小化视觉干扰，到军事观察员的定位，以及避开对方观察员的路线规划。从这个项目产生的软件将免费提供给其他研究人员。

The major thrust of this research is representation and operation on terrain data using computational geometry techniques. That includes operations such as data compression, visibility, mobility, and drainage, representing multiple related data layers, and multiple data source correlations, and nonlinear representations. This project is cognizant of the peculiar properties of terrain, including its low level of continuity, its long-range correlations (such as drainage basins), and its vertical asymmetry (there are many local maxima, but few local minima). New terraforming operators include scooping and deposition and erosion. Efficiency in both computational space and time is also a priority. The importance of terrain modeling and computational cartography is attested by the number of companies specializing in this, and by the several database companies attempting to add these features to their generic products. New techniques are necessary because of the growing volume of data from sources such as LIDAR and IFSAR. The techniques developed here will be applicable in a growing range of domains from environmental planning, to radio communication on the Moon and Mars as well as on the earth, and to national defense. Visibility determination has applications from minimizing visual nuisances, to siting of military observers, and to route planning to avoid the other side's observers. The software resulting from this project will be freely available to other researchers.