A cocktail algorithm for planar Bezier curve intersections

Presented in this paper is a new intersection algorithm between planar Bezi er curves. The algorithm, named the cocktail algorithm, mixes and matches t he merits of existing intersection algorithms appropriately. In the propose d approach, curves are approximated by a number of rational quadratic Bezie r curve segments according to the shape characteristics of the curve. Then, the rational quadratic Bezier curve approximations are intersected using t he implicitization method to produce the seeds of the numerical process. Ex perimental results reveal that the performance of the cocktail algorithm is superior to others for the curves with degrees higher than cubic. For cubi c curves, however, the cocktail algorithm is slightly slower than the impli citization method with a hard coded resultant, but faster than others. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.