Shape preservation and the fairness of curves (Q1181971)

In this note the authors make some comments concerning the remarks on curve fairing made in the paper of \textit{E. T. Y. Lee} [ibid. 22, No. 1, 37-40 (1990; Zbl 0699.65005)]. Lee stated that the curve fairing algorithms described in the paper by \textit{G. Farin, G. Rein}, the author and \textit{A. J. Worsey} [Comput.-Aided Geom. Des. 4, 91-103 (1987; Zbl 0644.65007)] rely on ``incorrect premises'': those fairing algorithms aim at reducing the jump discontinuity in the third derivative of a spline curve. This, Lee claims, leads to algorithms that are based on the parametric representation of the curve, while one really wants to improve the curvature plot of the curve, which relies on the intrinsic geometry of the curve. Discussing the remarks of Lee the authors mention that the convexity enforcing (ConvEn) knot-removal algorithm described by the author and \textit{G. Farin} [Comput.-Aided Des. 22, No. 2, 121-129 (1990; Zbl 0697.65003)] alleviates the above problem, as it preserves the local convexity of the control polygon. Thus, the ConvEn fairing algorithm produces valid results even for the examples of Lee.