Convex Quadratic Programming for Computing Geodesic Distances on Triangle Meshes

Abstract

Querying the geodesic distance field on a given smooth surface is a fundamental research pursuit in computer graphics. Both accuracy and smoothness serve as common indicators for evaluating geodesic algorithms. In this study, we argue that ensuring that the norm of the triangle-wise estimated gradients is not larger than 1 is preferable compared to the widely used eikonal condition. Inspired by this, we formulate the geodesic distance field problem as a Quadratically Constrained Linear Programming (QCLP) problem. This formulation can be further adapted into a Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming (QCQP) problem by incorporating considerations for smoothness requirements. Specifically, when enforcing a Hessian-energy-based smoothing term, our formulation, named QCQP-Hessian, effectively mitigates the cusps in the geodesic isolines within the near-ridge area while maintaining accuracy in the off-ridge area. We conducted extensive experiments to demonstrate the accuracy and smoothness advantages of QCQP-Hessian.