Common tangents to planar parametric curves: a geometric solution

✍ Scribed by Laxmi Parida; SP Mudur

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 854 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-4485
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-4485(95)90751-z

✦ Synopsis

The task of determining common tangent lines to a pair (or more) of parametric curves has important applications in draughting systems, enveloping polygon computation, binpacking and compaction problems, and a host of other areas. In the paper, an efficient and robust algorithm to detect all common tangent lines between a pair of planar parametric curves has been presented. The algorithm uses a geometric search on the curves, and, by quickly rejecting large portions that are not likely to have a common tangent, it rapidly zeros in on the solution. The aigorithm has been implemented on an IBM-compatible PC, and it works fast enough for realtime interactive use.