Geometric Hermite approximation of surface patch intersection curves (Q1175516)

The authors develop a new solution to the surface-surface intersection problem based on a technique known as geometric Hermite interpolation. Given a beginning and ending point on a branch of the intersection curve, the presented algorithm directly computes (without subdivision or marching) two parametric curves (one in the parameter space of each patch) which approximate the intersection curve. An error bound is determined from this approximation. If the error is too large, each unsatisfactory approximating curve is split in half and new approximations are made directly. The error now tends to be \(2^{- (2k+2)}\). The paper also presents a new algorithm for performing curve-surface intersection (an essential part in solving the problem of finding a beginning and ending point on each branch of the intersection curve). The paper is illustrated with an intersection example involving two bicubic patches.