Quick Reference

of Curve and
Surface Terms

ab initio design Latin: from the beginning. Used to describe design processes
in which the designer inputs his or her ideas directly into the computer, without
constraints such as interpolatory constraints.
Affine combination Same as a barycentric combination.
Affine invariance A property of a curve or surface generation scheme: the same
resuh is obtained if computation of a point on a curve or surface occurs before
or after an affine map is apphed to the input data.
Affine map Any map comprising translations, rotations, scalings, and shears.
Maps parallels to parallels. Leaves ratios of collinear points unchanged.
Approximation Fitting a curve or surface to given data. As opposed to interpo-
lation, the curve or surface approximation only has to be close to the data.
Barycentric combination A weighted average where the sum of the weights
equals one.
Barycentric coordinates A point in E^ may be written as a unique barycentric
combination of three points. The coefficients in this combination are its barycen-
tric coordinates.
Basis function Functions form linear spaces, which have bases. The elements
of these bases are the basis functions.
Bernstein polynomial The basis functions for Bezier curves.
Beta-spline curve A G^ piecewise cubic curve that is defined over a uniform
knot sequence.
Bezier curve A polynomial curve that is expressed in terms of Bernstein poly-
nomials.
437
438 Appendix A Quick Reference of Curve and Surface Terms

Bezier polygon The coefficients in the expansion of a Bezier curve in terms of

Bernstein polynomials are points. Connected according to their natural number-
ing, they form the Bezier polygon.
Bilinear patch A patch that is ruled in two directions. Or: a hyperbolic para-
boloid.
Blossom A multivariate polynomial that is associated v^ith a given polynomial
through the process of blossoming.
Blossoming The procedure of applying n (the polynomial degree) de Casteljau
algorithm steps or n de Boor steps to a polynomial (or to a segment of a spline
curve), but each one for a different parameter value.
B-spline A piecev^ise polynomial function. It is defined over a knot partition,
has local support, and is nonnegative. If a spline curve is expressed in terms of
B-splines, it is called a B-spline curve.
B-spline polygon The coefficients in the expansion of a B-spline curve in terms
of B-splines are points. Connected according to their natural numbering, they
form the B-spline polygon. Also called de Boor polygon.
Breakpoint Same as a knot.
Butterfly scheme An interpolatory recursive subdivision scheme that creates
smooth surfaces from a given set of triangulated points.
CAGD Computer aided geometric design.
Catmull-Clark Surfaces Subdivision surfaces that are bicubic spline surfaces
v^hen the input mesh is rectangular.
C^ A smoothness property of curves or surfaces: being r times differentiable w^ith
respect to the given parametrization.
Chord length parameters In many curve interpolation problems, data points
need to be assigned parameter values. If these are spaced relative to the spacing
of the data points, we have chord length parameters.
Collinear Being on a straight line.
Compatibility For some interpolation problems, the input data may not be
arbitrary but must satisfy some consistency constraints, called compatibility
conditions.
Conic section The intersection curve between a cone and a plane. Or: the
projective image of a parabola. A nondegenerate conic is an ellipse, a parabola,
or a hyperbola.
CONS Curve on surface.
Control polygon See Bezier polygon or B-spline polygon.
 Quick Reference of Curve and Surface Terms 439

Control vector For rational curves, a Bezier or B-spline control point that has
degenerated to a vector, implying a zero weight.
Convex curve A planar curve that is a subset of the boundary of its convex hull.
Convex hull The smallest convex set that contains a given set.
Convex set A set such that the straight line segment connecting any tv^o points
of the set is completely contained within the set.
Coons patch A patch that is fitted between four arbitrary boundary curves.
Coplanar Being on the same plane.
Cross plot Breaking down the plot of a parametric curve into the plots of each
coordinate function.
Cross ratio A quantity computed from four coUinear points, invariant under
projective maps. A generalization of affine ratios.
Curvature At a point on a curve, curvature is the inverse of the radius of the
osculating circle. Also: curvature measures by how much a curve deviates from
a straight line at a given point.
Curve The path of a point moving through space. Or: the image of the real line
under a continuous map.
de Boor algorithm The algorithm that recursively computes a point on a
B-spline curve.
de Casteljau algorithm The algorithm that recursively computes a point on a
Bezier curve.
Decimation Reducing the number of triangles in a triangulation while staying
close to the initial geometry.
Delaunay triangulation A triangulation that maximizes the minimal angle of
all triangles. Or: the dual of the Dirichlet tessellation.
Developable surface A ruled surface whose Gaussian curvature vanishes ev-
erywhere.
Direct G^ splines G^ piecewise cubics that are generated by specifying a control
polygon and some Bezier points.
Dirichlet tessellation A partition of E^ or E^ into convex tiles. Each tile is
associated with a given data point such that all of its points are closer to "its"
data point than to any other data point.
Domain The preimage of a curve or surface.
Doo-Sabin surfaces Subdivision surfaces that are biquadratic spline surfaces
when the input mesh is rectangular.
440 Appendix A Quick Reference of Curve and Surface Terms

End condition In cubic spline curve interpolation, one has to supply an extra
condition at each of the two endpoints. Examples of such end conditions: pre-
scribed tangents or zero curvature.
Four-point sciieme An interpolatory curve subdivision scheme.
Frenet frame At each point of a (nondegenerate) curve, the first, second, and
third derivative vectors are linearly independent. Applying Gram-Schmidt or-
thonormalization to them yields the Frenet frame of the curve at the given point.
Functional curve or surface A curve of the form y = f{x) or a surface of the
form z = f{x^y),
C^ spline curve A C^ piecewise cubic curve that is twice differentiable with
respect to arc length.
y-spline A G^ spline that is C^ over a given knot sequence.
Geometric continuity Smoothness properties of a curve or a surface that are
more general than its order of differentiability.
Gordon surface A generalization of Coons patches. Interpolates to a rectilinear
network of curves.
Hermite interpolation Generating a curve or surface from data that consist of
points and first and/or higher derivatives.
Hodograph The first derivative curve of a parametric curve.
Homogeneous coordinates A coordinate system that is used to describe ra-
tional curves and surfaces in terms of projective geometry, where they are just
polynomial.
Horner's scheme An efficient method to evaluate a polynomial in monomial
form by nested multiplication.
IGES Initial Graphics Exchange Specification. A popular data specification for-
mat, aiming at unifying geometry descriptions.
Infinite control point Same as control vector.
Inflection point A point on a curve where the tangent intersects the curve. Often
corresponds to points with zero curvature.
Interior Bezier points For curves, those Bezier points that are not junction
points. For surfaces, those Bezier points that are not boundary points.
Interpolation Finding a curve or surface that satisfies some imposed constraints
exactly. The most common constraint is the requirement of passing through a set
of given points.
Junction point A spline curve comprises segments. The common point shared
by two segments is called the junction point. See also knot.
 Quick Reference of Curve and Surface Terms 441

Knot A spline curve is defined over a partition of an interval of the real line. The
points that define the partition are called knots. If evaluated at a knot, the spline
curve passes through a junction point.
Knot insertion Adding a new knot to the knot sequence of a B-spline curve
without changing the graph of the curve.
Lagrange interpolation Finding a polynomial curve through a given set of data
points.
Least squares An approximation process that aims at minimizing the devia-
tions of given data points from a desired curve or surface.
Linear precision A property of many curve schemes: if the curve generation
scheme is applied to data read off from a straight line, that straight line is
reproduced.
Local control A curve or surface scheme has the local control property if a
change in the input data only changes the curve or surface in a region near the
changed data.
Lofting Creating a ruled surface between two given curves.
Minmax box Smallest 2D or 3D box with edges parallel to the coordinate axes
that completely contains a given object.
Monomial form A polynomial is in monomial form if it is expressed in terms
of the monomials 1, ^, ^^,.. ..
Multiresolution Breaking down an object into a sequence of approximations
with increasing accuracy.
Node A term that is used inconsistently in the literature: it sometimes refers to
a knot, sometimes to a control point.
NURB Nonuniform rational B-spline curve or surface.
y-spline An interpolating G spline curve that is C^ over a given knot sequence.
Osculating circle At a given point, the osculating circle approximates the curve
"better" than any other circle.
Osculating plane The plane that contains the osculating circle of a curve at a
given point. This plane is spanned by the given point and the curve's first and
second derivative vectors.
Oslo algorithm The process of simultaneously inserting several knots into a
B-spline curve.
Parametrization Assigning parameter values to junction points in spline curves.
Also used with a different meaning: the function that describes the speed of a
point traversing a curve.
442 Appendix A Quick Reference of Curve and Surface Terms

Patch Complicated surfaces are usually broken down into smaller units, called
patches. For example, a bicubic spline surface consists of a collection of bicubic
patches.
Point A location in space. If one uses coordinate systems to describe space, a
point is represented as an w-tuple of real numbers.
Point cloud A (typically large) set of 3D points without any ordering or struc-
ture.
Precision A curve or surface generation scheme has nth order precision if it
reproduces polynomials of degree n.
Projective map A map comprising affine maps and central projections. Leaves
cross ratios of coUinear points unchanged. Does (in general) not map parallels
to parallels.
Quad Short for quadrilateral.
Quadric A surface with the implicit representation f{x, y, z) = 0, where f is
a quadratic polynomial. Or: the projective image of an elliptic paraboloid, a
hyperbolic paraboloid, or a parabolic cyHnder.
Ratio A quantity computed from three coUinear points. Invariant under affine
maps, but not under projective maps.
Rational curves and surfaces Projections of nonrational (integral) curves or
surfaces from four-space into three-space.
Recursive subdivision Curves or surfaces that are defined as the limit of a
polygon or polyhedron refinement process.
Ruled surface A surface containing a family of straight lines. Obtained as linear
interpolation between two given curves.
S-patch A surface patch with an arbitrary number of boundary curves, con-
structed by mapping a multidimensional simplex onto a 2D polygon, the domain
of the patch.
Segment An individual polynomial (or rational polynomial) curve in an assem-
bly of such curves to form a spline curve. The bivariate analog of a segment is a
patch.
Shape parameter A degree of freedom (usually a real number) in a curve or
surface representation that can be used to fine-tune the shape of that curve or
surface.
Solid modeling The description of closed objects that are bounded by a collec-
tion of surfaces.
Space The collection of all points.
 Quick Reference of Curve and Surface Terms 443

Spline curve A continuous curve that comprises several polynomial segments.

Spline curves are often represented in terms of B-splines. They may be the result
of an interpolation process or of an ab initio design process. If the segments are
rational polynomials, we have a rational spline curve.
Standard form The property of a rational curve of having its end weights equal
to unity.
Star In a triangular mesh: the set of all triangles having a given point as a vertex.
Stereo lithography The process of producing a physical (usually plastic) model
of a part, involving building layers of material hardened by laser rays aimed
inside a tank of liquid resin.
Subdivision Breaking a curve or surface down into smaller pieces of the same
type as the original curve or surface.
Subdivision surface A surface that is the result of iteratively refining a given
control mesh.
Support The region over which a nonnegative function is actually positive.
Surface The locus of all points of a moving and deforming curve. Or: the 3D
image of a region in two-space under a continuous map. A surface is often broken
down into patches.
Surface spline A piecewise bicubic approximation to a Doo-Sabin surface.
Surface triangulation A collection of triangular facets that covers a smooth
surface, obeying the structure of a triangulation.
Tangent The straight line that best approximates a smooth curve at a point on
it. This straight line is parallel to the tangent vector.
Tangent vector The first derivative of a differentiable curve at a point on it. The
length of the tangent vector depends on the parametrization of the curve.
Tensor product A method to generate rectangular surfaces using curve methods.
Tile The interior of a convex closed 2D polygon.
Torsion A measure of how much a curve "curves away" from the osculating
plane at a given point.
Transfinite interpolation Interpolating to curves, with infinitely, that is, trans-
finitely many points on it, as opposed to discrete interpolation, which interpolates
only to finitely many points.
Translational surface A surface that is obtained by translating one curve along
another one.
Triangular patch A patch whose domain is a triangle.
444 Appendix A Quick Reference of Curve and Surface Terms

Triangulation A collection of triangles, covering a region in E^, such that the

triangles do not overlap, and that any two triangles either have no points in
common, or they have one edge in common, or they have one vertex in common.
See also surface triangulation.
Trimmed surface If the domain of a parametric surface is divided into "valid"
and "invalid" regions, the image of the valid regions is called a trimmed surface.
Twist vector The mixed second partial of a surface at a point. Note: not a
geometric property of the surface, but parametrization dependent.
Valency A vertex in a polygonal mesh has valency niin edges emanate from the
vertex. Also: valence.
Variation diminution Intuitively: a curve or surface scheme has this property if
its output "wiggles less" than the data from which it is constructed.
Vector A direction. Usually the difference of two points.
Volume deformation A surface or a collection of surfaces may be embedded
in a cube. That cube may then be deformed using some trivariate Bezier or
B-spline method—this is the volume distortion—in order to change the shape
of the initial surface(s).
Voronoi diagram Same as Dirichlet tessellation.
Weight Rational curves and surfaces are often defined in terms of homogeneous
coordinates. The last component of the homogeneous coordinate is called weight.
Weight point The point formed by a weighted average of two control points of
a rational curve; the weights in the average are the weights of the control points.