On parametric smoothness of generalised B-spline curves (Q2432794)

The author studies the global continuity of generalised B-spline curves on a Riemannian manifold \(M\). These piecewise \(C^\infty\) curves are defined recursively by replacing line segments with minimal geodesics in the classical Cox-de Boor algorithm. First, it is proved that a generalised B-spline curve of degree \(m\) is continuous at the knots and \(C^1\) at the knots of multiplicity at most \(m-1\). The main result then provides an explicit formula for the difference between the left and right covariant accelerations at a knot of multiplicity at most \(m-2\) in terms of the exponential map of \(M\), showing that, unlike classical B-spline curves, generalised B-spline curves need not be in general \(C^2\) continuous at such knots. This result extends a previous example of \textit{M.-J. Kim, M.-S. Kim} and \textit{S. Shin} [Proc. Computer Animation '95, 72--81 (1995)] with \(M=S^3\), \(m=3\), and enables the construction of a new example with \(M=S^2\), \(m=3\), which demonstrates that uniform knot spacing does not guarantee \(C^2\) or \(G^2\) continuity.