Perturbing Bézier coefficients for best constrained degree reduction in the L2-norm

This paper first shows how the Bézier coefficients of a given degree n polynomial are perturbed so that it can be reduced to a degree m (<n) polynomial with the constraint that continuity of a prescribed order is preserved at the two endpoints. The perturbation vector, which consists of the perturbation coefficients, is determined by minimizing a weighted Euclidean norm. The optimal degree n−1 approximation polynomial is explicitly given in Bézier form. Next the paper proves that the problem of finding a best L₂-approximation over the interval 0,1] for constrained degree reduction is equivalent to that of finding a minimum perturbation vector in a certain weighted Euclidean norm. The relevant weights are derived. This result is applied to computing the optimal constrained degree reduction of parametric Bézier curves in the L₂-norm.