Determining a set of facets that represents a skin of a real object

A computer readable storage medium having recorded thereon a computer program comprising instructions for performing a computer-implemented method for 3D reconstruction, the method comprising:

• obtaining a 3D point cloud representing a real object;
• fitting the 3D point cloud with parametric surfaces;
• defining a partition of the parametric surfaces into oriented facets which respect intersections between the parametric surfaces;
• determining, among the oriented facets of the partition, a set of facets that represents a skin of the real object, the determining comprising minimizing an energy which includes:
• a data term that increasingly penalizes discarding facets, as a level of fit between a discarded facet and the 3D point cloud increases, and
• a constraint term that penalizes formation of non-skin geometry by kept facets.

A system comprising:

• a processor coupled to a memory, the memory having recorded thereon a computer program comprising instructions for 3D reconstruction that when executed by the processor cause the processor to be configured to
• obtain a 3D point cloud representing a real object;
• fit the 3D point cloud with parametric surfaces;
• define a partition of the parametric surfaces into oriented facets which respect intersections between the parametric surfaces;
• and
• determine, among the oriented facets of the partition, a set of facets that represents a skin of the real object, the determining comprising minimizing an energy which includes:
• a data term that increasingly penalizes discarding facets, as a level of fit between a discarded facet and the 3D point cloud increases, and
• a constraint term that penalizes formation of non-skin geometry by kept facets.