Topology during Subdivision of Bezier Curves I: Angular Convergence & Homeomorphism

Abstract

For Bezier curves, subdivision algorithms create control polygons as piecewise linear (PL) approximations that converge in terms of Hausdorff distance. We prove that the exterior angles of control polygons under subdivision converge to 0 at the rate of $O(\sqrt{\frac{1}{2^i}})$, where $i$ is the number of subdivisions. This angular convergence is useful for determining topological features. We use it to show homeomorphism between a Bezier curve and its control polygon under subdivision. The constructive geometric proofs yield closed-form formulas to compute sufficient numbers of subdivision iterations to obtain small exterior angles and achieve homeomorphism.