Medial Axis Transformation of a Planar Shape

Abstract

The medial axis transformation is a means first proposed by Blum to describe a shape. In this paper we present a 0(n log n) algorithm for computing the medial axis of a planar shape represented by an n-edge simple polygon. The algorithm is an improvement over most previously known results interms of both efficiency and exactness and has been implemented in Fortran. Some computer-plotted output of the program are also shown in the paper.