Actually, it samples surface shape/topology So while the examples that paper is using are triangular meshes being turned into quads, it could be working with nurbs too. There is another paper by the same author on user-directed remeshing that yields models with good edge flows ( Needed for 3D animation ). Basically a automated version of Silo's topo brush.

Both would be killer features. Don't dismiss them because the examples are tri based. :)