New Hermite cubic interpolator for two-dimensional curve generation

The problem of generating a smooth two-dimensional curve through a set of sample points is examined. Such curve generation techniques can be used in curve coding for transmission (e.g. `Telewriting¿¿) and in curve design. The paper examines some parametric interpolators which will generate such curves, with emphasis on techniques based on the Hermite cubic (or cubic subspline) interpolator. A new method is presented which gives the interpolator a performance similar to that obtained with finite impulse response (FIR) filtering. Comparisons are made with existing techniques using both visual results and computational complexity measures. The new method is found to have better locality, smoothing characteristics and a lower computational cost than alternative approaches.