LEAST-SQUARES DEGREE REDUCTION OF BEZIER CURVES

In this paper we investigate the problem of reducing the degree of Bez ier curves approximately from n to a prescribed target degree m whereb y (parametric) continuity of any order less than or equal to m - 1/2 c an be preserved at the two endpoints. The computations are carried out by minimizing the (constrained) L(2)-norm between the two curves. In addition, a complete algorithm is given for performing the degree redu ction within a prescribed error tolerance by help of subdivision. This work is an evident improvement on a previous paper (Eck, M Comput.-Ai ded Geom. Des. Vol 10 (1993) pp 237-251) about degree reduction in the sense that the algorithm presented is faster and much easier to imple ment, while still producing very good results.