Comparison of methods for the simplification of mesh models of the lungs using quality indices and an observer study

This paper presents a comparison among mesh simplification methods performed through quality indices and a controlled experiment involving 32 observers. The simplification methods: OpenMesh, OpenMesh with a normal flipping criterion and QSlim, were compared at two simplification levels: 50% and 20% of the original number of faces. Results obtained using the quality indices and the controlled experiment were compared and show that some quality indices can be used as reasonable estimators of the observers' performance in specific circumstances.