Curvature, triameter, and beyond
  In its most general form, the recognition problem in Riemannian geometry asks for the identification of an unknown Riemannian manifold via measurements of metric invariants on the manifold. We introduce a new infinite sequence of invariants, the first term of which is the usual diameter, and illustrate the role of these global shape invariants in a number of recognition problems. 
Karsten Grove, Steen Markvorsen