From: ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk   
      
   Malcolm McLean  writes:   
      
   > I'm working on a problem where a user enters a degraded, wiggly curve   
   > (it's actually created by tracing software from what might have been   
   > once a rectangle, for example, but has been physically printed, then   
   > scanned, and so on, so that there are plenty of stray pixels picked up   
   > by the tracing software).   
   >   
   > So basically what I want to do is sample the curve at a fairly low   
   > resolution, then re-fit it, to get rid of the noise. However I want to   
   > retain the genuine sharp corners. So in the rectangle case, the   
   > desired output wouldn't be a mathematical rectangle, but it would be   
   > four clean almost straight curves, connected by four corners of almost   
   > ninety degreees.   
   >   
   > The curve tends to go back on itself. It's like a coastline. It's easy   
   > to pick out the real curve from the noise by eye, but harder to do it   
   > automatically.   
      
   How is this going?  I can't help, but I was hoping so see some   
   interesting discussion as it seems both challenging and likely to have   
   been solved before (though possibly with constraints that don't match   
   your circumstances).   
      
   --   
   Ben.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)