An m-rep represents a single object as a set of connected meshes of medial atoms. There is a main figure and possibly a set of connected subfigures, each represented by a single quadrilateral (or other topological) mesh of medial atoms.
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get figure | get figure |
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The single green mesh is populated by 8x3 yellow atoms.
The other colors indicate each atom's frame.
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The surface implied by the interpolation of the frames
of the atoms.
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Two green meshes |
This multifigure surface is created by blending the implied surfaces of two figures. |
The meshes are connected by a subfigure having at one end of its mesh "hinge atoms" that ride on the implied boundary of the parent figure.
| get figure | get figure | get figure |
| The hinge atoms of the red child figure are circled in red | Without blending, individual figures may be seen | Hinge atoms determine where blending takes place. |
An m-rep model is typically built from a population of trading instances of the object.
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| Left and right hippocampi from a population of individual brains. | An m-rep represents the population by minimizing the difference between the m-rep's implied surface and any surface found in any individual. |
Models for multi-object complexes are built by figures in one object "knowing" the position or part of their surface in the figural coordinates of a nearby figure of another object.
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| The gray region of the child figure is sensitized to be a specific distance above a specific position on its parent figure. |