The Mid-sphere Cousin of the Medial Axis Transform

Abstract

The medial axis of a smoothly embedded surface in $\mathbb{R}^3$ consists of all points for which the Euclidean distance function on the surface has at least two minima. We generalize this notion to the mid-sphere axis, which consists of all points for which the Euclidean distance function has two interchanging saddles that swap their partners in the pairing by persistent homology. It offers a discrete-algebraic multi-scale approach to computing ridge-like structures on the surface. As a proof of concept, an algorithm that computes stair-case approximations of the mid-sphere axis is provided.