Voxel Approach to the Shadow Formation Process in Image Analysis

Voxel models are one of the effective ways to supply three-dimensional bodies. However, the problem of a significant number of elements that they consist of requires a solution. This paper proposes a voxel-based design approach to the shadow formation process. In particular, the proposed algoritm allows to determine the shape of the shadow cast on a given (basic) plane. The voxel model body provides the following sequence of actions: determine which edges of the overall parallelepiped voxel model take part in shadow formation (each edge corresponds to a separate the discrete matrix model matrix); for each selected edge of the overall parallelepiped the direction in which the shadow falls is determined; for each element of the corresponding discrete matrix model matrix, on the basis of the Bresenham's algorithm, the fact is established whether there is an obstacle for the shadow of the corresponding edge of the voxel to reach the base plane. The models are compared and analysed.