Joint geometry/texture progressive coding of 3D models

Files of 3D models are often large and hence time-consuming to retrieve from a storage device or to download from the network. Most 3D viewing applications need to obtain the entire file of a 3D model in order to display it, even when the user is interested only in a small part, or a low-resolution version, of the model. Therefore, progressive coding that enables multiresolution transmission of 3D models is desired. However, existing research in progressive coding of 3D models either focuses on progressive coding of the geometry only, or progressive coding of the texture only. In this paper, we propose a joint geometry/texture coding scheme for 3D models. With this technique, geometry and texture are coded jointly and transmitted progressively to the users. Bits that represent perceptually more important information, in terms of both geometry and texture, are transmitted before the less important bits, allowing the user to obtain the best available visual quality at any time during the transmission