Indexing 3D scenes using the interaction bisector surface

The spatial relationship between different objects plays an important role in defining the context of scenes. Most previous 3D classification and retrieval methods take into account either the individual geometry of the objects or simple relationships between them such as the contacts or adjacencies. In this article we propose a new method for the classification and retrieval of 3D objects based on the Interaction Bisector Surface (IBS), a subset of the Voronoi diagram defined between objects. The IBS is a sophisticated representation that describes topological relationships such as whether an object is wrapped in, linked to, or tangled with others, as well as geometric relationships such as the distance between objects. We propose a hierarchical framework to index scenes by examining both the topological structure and the geometric attributes of the IBS. The topology-based indexing can compare spatial relations without being severely affected by local geometric details of the object. Geometric attributes can also be applied in comparing the precise way in which the objects are interacting with one another. Experimental results show that our method is effective at relationship classification and content-based relationship retrieval.