Geometry Compression Algorithm of 3D Mesh Models Based on Sphere Surface Division

A regular grid is constructed over a unit sphere. The grid point is labeled by serial numbers in order. The 3D position of a model is expressed by the radius and the serial number of the grid approximately. After sorting the serial numbers, a vertex is expressed by the radius and the difference between the neighbouring numbers. Thus the three coordinates are compressed into a float and a small integer. Then the float is quantified to an integer for the further reduction of the storage. The advantage of the algorithm is that the compressing process does not depend on the topological structure of the model. The results show that the new algorithms can reach a perfect compress effect. Although the algorithm is explained in the triangular mesh, it can also be applied in other kind of meshes.