How to find the best camera position to maximize the visible surface of an object described by a triangular mesh?

Hello all,

I have a problem which has been making my headhake for few days.

I have a triangular mesh of a complex object and I need to find what position to give to a camera, in order to maximize the portion of the surface visible from the camera.

In other words, given a camera with a specific horizontal and vertical field of view, what is the position of the camera that allows capturing most of the object triangular mesh?.

I think the problem has some similarities with the problem of finding the best position of a spotlight to maximize the illumination of the object. However, I have not been able to find an algorithm which works for either camera viewing or lighting.

Do you have any sugestions?

Cheers,

Carmelo