Vector elimination: A technique for the implicitization, inversion, and intersection of planar parametric rational polynomial curves

Abstract

In this paper vector techniques and elimination methods are combined to help resolve some classical problems in computer aided geometric design. Vector techniques are applied to derive the Bezout resultant for two polynomials in one variable. This resultant is then used to solve the following two geometric problems: Given a planar parametric rational polynomial curve, (a) find the implicit polynomial equation of the curve (implicitization); (b) find the parameter value(s) corresponding to the coordinates of a point known to lie on the curve (inversion). The solutions to these two problems are closed form and, in general, require only the arithmetic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These closed form solutions lead to a simple, non-iterative, analytic algorithm for computing the intersection points of two planar parametric rational polynomial curves. Extensions of these techniques to planar rational Bezier curves are also discussed.