Sunday 5 February 2012

Variable Density Hilbert Curve

First few images from a quick proof of concept, but first the background... I've been pondering infill algorithms for a while and wondering how best to account for variable internal density, whilst still retaining high print speed. Whilst looking at space filling curves yesterday, it occurred to me that it should be possible to vary the apparent density of the curve simply by modifying the recursion depth inline with a reference model or image.

To quickly judge the effectiveness of this approach, I've put together a very quick applet that varies the recursion density of the Hilbert Curve according to the average grayscale levels of a reference image. Below are a couple of samples to illustrate the effect.

 1) Rubix Cube - Hilbert Curve between 4 and 8 levels of recursion:


2) Kitten - Hilbert Curve between 6 and 9 levels of recursion

3) Kitten - Hilbert Curve between 5 and 9 levels of recursion

The two kitten images show the effect of modifying a "contrast" operator, that controls the level of recursion associated with each grayscale range.

Next step is to see what happens if this approach is combined with a density map generated along the lines of this post: http://axuv.blogspot.com/2012/01/adaptive-infill.html. Off to Amsterdam for a few days, so this will have to wait for next weekend...