Rational complex Bezier curves

Resumen

In this paper we develop the formalism of rational complex Bézier curves. This framework is a simple extension of the CAD paradigm, since it describes arcs of curves in terms of control polygons and weights, which are extended to complex values. One of the major advantages of this extension is that we may make use of two different groups of projective transformations. Besides the group of projective transformations of the real plane, we have the group of complex projective transformations. This allows us to apply useful transformations like the geometric inversion to curves in design. In addition to this, the use of the complex formulation allows to lower the degree of the curves in some cases. This can be checked using the resultant of two polynomials and provides a simple formula for determining whether a rational cubic curve is a conic or not. Examples of application of the formalism to classical curves are included.