Interpolating solid orientations with circular blending quaternion curves (Q1902400)

In animation one has to draw a solid in successive positions. These positions can be described by translations and rotations. The authors are concerned with describing curves in SO(3) that can be used in animation, they should be geometrically smooth to avoid jerky pictures. Their main object is to find a smooth method of blending curves given as quaternion functions, for which they give a reasonably explicit algorithm. This algorithm is slower than other known algorithms in the field but avoids introducing large second derivatives that disturb visual smoothness. On the way they derive some known formulas of quaternion calculus. [By using the map of C. Stéphanopoulos of unit quaternions \(V + S\) onto \(S/V \in\mathbb{R}^3\), Mémoire sur la représentation des homographies binaires par des points de l'espace avec application à l'étude des rotations sphériques, Math. Ann. 22, 299-367 (1883) one can use standard methods of blending in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) by rational Bézier splines or similar devices].