Optimal polygonal approximation of digital planar curves using meta heuristics

This paper presents three heuristic algorithms For optimal polygonal approx imation of digital planar curves. We use genetic algorithm (GR), improved g enetic algorithm based on Pareto optimal solution (GAP) and tabu search (TS ) to obtain a near optimal polygonal approximation. Compared to the famous Teh-Chin algorithm, our algorithms have obtained the approximated polygons with less number of vertices and less approximation error. Compared to the dynamic programming algorithm, the processing time of our algorithms are mu ch less. (C) 2001 Pattern Recognition Society. Published by Elsevier Scienc e Ltd. All rights reserved.