Abstract: An image is defined, in correspondence with a predetermined polyhedral meshing of a portion of the space, by a numerical value for each vertex of the meshing. Polygon processing includes receiving a representation of a plane polygon with p vertices, p respective values for these p vertices, and a threshold. In correspondence with the polygon, polygon processing supplies a list of oriented segments linking points of the edges of the polygon which are interpolated as being equal to the threshold, with a predetermined direction convention. Polyhedron processing includes receiving a representation of a polyhedron with the values at its vertices and a threshold. Polyhedron processing then invokes polygon processing for all the faces of the polyhedron, which supplies a list of oriented segments. Polyhedron processing then associates with the polyhedron a list of closed and oriented cycles, constituted by segments from the said list of segments.