An improved shape descriptor using bezier curves

Abstract

Existing shape description techniques using Bezier curves do not adequately consider the domain specific shape information such as the cornerity or gradualness of a shape in the control point generation process. This can lead to large distortion in shape representation even when a large descriptor is used. This paper addresses the issue by introducing a novel improved shape descriptor using Bezier curves (ISDBC) algorithm which divides a shape into segments depending on the cornerity and generates the control points for the segments based on shape information. It also provides an efficient control point encoding strategy which exploits the inherent periodic nature of the distances between consecutive control points. The performance of the ISDBC algorithm has been rigorously tested upon a number of arbitrary shapes, with both quantitative and qualitative results confirming its superiority over existing algorithms. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2005.