R

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Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339
www.elsevier.com/locate/cagd
Clifford algebra, Lorentzian geometry,
and rational parametrization of canal surfaces

Hee Cheol Cho

a
, Hyeong In Choi
a,
, Song-Hwa Kwon
a
, Doo Seok Lee
b
,
Nam-Sook Wee
c
a
Department of Mathematics, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
b
Research Lab., Amisys Corp., Seoul, South Korea
c
Department of Industrial Engineering, Hansung University, Seoul, South Korea
Received 5 May 2003; received in revised form 7 November 2003; accepted 8 November 2003
Abstract
We present a new approach toward the rational parametrization of canal surfaces. According to our previous
work, every canal surface with rational (respectively polynomial) spine curve and rational (respectively polynomial)
radius function is a rational (respectively polynomial) Pythagorean hodograph curve in R
3,1
. Drawing upon
this formalism and utilizing the underlying Lorentzian geometry, the problem is reduced to simple algebraic
manipulations.
We also illustrate how our work relates to the previous work of Pottmann and Peternell.
Finally, we give an outline of an approach toward the rotation-minimizing parametrization of canal surfaces.
2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Canal surface is dened as an envelope of 1-parameter family of spheres of varying radii. Let
s(t ) = (x(t ), y(t ), z(t )) R
3
be the center, called the spine curve, and r(t ) the radius, where t is the
parameter. The envelope of such a family can be computed by the following two equations:
(t ):
_
(x, y, z) s(t ), (x, y, z) s(t )
_
R
3
r(t )
2
= 0,

(t ):
_
(x, y, z) s(t ), s

(t )
_
R
3
+r(t )r

(t ) = 0.
(1)

Supported in part by KOSEF R01-2001-000-00396-0, KOSEFSRCCS at SNU, and Overhead Research Fund of SNU.
This research was also nancially supported by Hansung University in the year 2004.
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: hichoi@math.snu.ac.kr (H.I. Choi).
0167-8396/$ see front matter 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cagd.2003.11.001
328 H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339
Fig. 1. Geometric description of canal surface.
In order to guarantee that the canal surface is a smooth, non-degenerate surface, we assume that
x(t ), y(t ), z(t ) and r(t ) are smooth and satisfy the following non-degeneracy condition:
x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
+z

(t )
2
> r

(t )
2
. (2)
We call the 1-parameter set of circles k(t ) = (t )

(t ) dened by (1) the characteristic circles. Let

p be a point in k(t ). Denote by (t, u) the unit vector in the direction p s(t ), where the parameter u in
(t, u) denotes the parameter of the characteristic circle k(t ). One can thus write p s(t ) = r(t )(t, u)
(see Fig. 1). Then equation

(t ) in (1) can be equivalently re-expressed as

_
(t, u), s

(t )
_
R
3
+r

(t ) = 0. (3)
Furthermore, the canal surface can be written in the following parametric form:
(t, u) = s(t ) +r(t )(t, u).
In R
2
, similar phenomenon occurs in connection with the medial axis transform (H.I. Choi et al.,
1997b; 1999). In his pioneering work, H.P. Moon studied the curves generated as an envelope of
1-parameter family of circles (H.I. Choi et al., 1997a). In there, the spine curve s(t ) = (x(t ), y(t ))
corresponds to the so-called medial axis, and together with the radius information r(t ), one can write
the envelope curve as
x(t ) = x(t ) +r(t )
r

(t )x

(t )
_
x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
r

(t )
2
y

(t )
x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
,
y(t ) = y(t ) +r(t )
r

(t )y

(t )
_
x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
r

(t )
2
x

(t )
x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
.
In this case, the non-degeneracy condition is
x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
> r

(t )
2
. (4)
H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339 329
Moons important observation is that the envelope becomes a rational expression of t , if
x

(t )
2
+y

(x)
2
r

(t )
2
=(t )
2
(5)
for some polynomial or rational function (t ), which suggests one has to exploit systematically this
particular condition. His way of doing so is to treat the medial axis transform m(t ) = (x(t ), y(t ), r(t ))
as sitting in the 3-dimensional Minkowski space R
2,1
. If so, the left hand side of Eq. (5) is simply the
squared length of the tangent vector m

(t ) = (x

(t ), y

(t ), r

(t )) with respect to the usual Minkowski norm

with the last co-ordinate being the timelike direction having negative length. And the non-degeneracy
condition (4) is equivalent to the requirement that m(t ) is a spacelike curve in R
2,1
. In this regard, Moon
dened the Minkowski Pythagorean Hodograph Curve m(t ) as a spacelike curve in R
2,1
each of whose
coordinate function is a polynomial in t satisfying the relation
x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
r

(t )
2
= (t )
2
(6)
for some polynomial function (t ). In (Moon, 1998; 1999), Moon obtained a necessary and sufcient
condition for m(t ) to be a Minkowski Pythagorean Hodograph (MPH) curve, which says that a
polynomial curve m(t ) = (x(t ), y(t ), r(t )) in R
2,1
is an MPH curve with x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
r

(t )
2
=
2
(t )
if and only if there exist four polynomials u(t ), v(t ), w(t ), (t ) satisfying the relations
(t ) =
_
u
2
(t ) v
2
(t ) w
2
(t ) +
2
(t )
_
,
x

(t ) = 2u(t )(t ) 2v(t )w(t ),

y

(t ) = u
2
(t ) +v
2
(t ) w
2
(t )
2
(t ),
r

(t ) = 2u(t )v(t ) +2(t )w(t ),

which turns out to be a Minkowski space version of the earlier work of Dietz, Hoschek and Jttler (1993)
on the Pythagorean Hodograph curve in R
3
.
In this paper, we study the canal surfaces from a similar viewpoint. Namely, we treat the canal surface
as given as a spacelike curve
m(t ) =
_
s(t ), r(t )
_
=
_
x(t ), y(t ), z(t ), r(t )
_
in the 4-dimensional Minkowski space R
3,1
, in which the co-ordinate functions x(t ), y(t ), z(t ), and r(t )
are assumed to be polynomials in t . (One can also consider the case in which the co-ordinate functions
are rational, which turns out to be easier to handle.)
Our approach is again to utilize the Pythagorean Hodograph formalism. However, it turns out, in this
case, that the situation is more complicated and vastly different from that of the ones studied by Dietz,
Hoschek and Jttler (Dietz et al., 1995; Jttler, 1998) and by Moon. The formalism and fundamental
results are due to the second author, the fourth author and Moon (H.I. Choi et al., 2002).
The gist of this approach is that unlike the ones in the 2- or 3-dimensional cases, the PH conditions
do not impose any restriction in case of dimension 4. Namely, under our new formalism in (H.I. Choi
et al., 2002), every non-degenerate one-parameter family of spheres is a PH curve in the 4-dimensional
Minkowski space R
3,1
, as long as the spine curve s(t ) and the radius function r(t ) are polynomials in t.
Our basic tool is the Clifford algebra and what we call the PH Representation map dened on it. Since
our earlier work (H.I. Choi et al., 2002) expounds these in detail, we will, in this paper, simply make
use of its results, and follow the notations and conventions therein. However for the sake of convenience
we collect some basic notations and facts in Section 2. The salient feature of this approach is that the
330 H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339
peculiarity of the 4-dimensional Clifford algebra is exploited in such a way that many key formulae can
be succinctly expressed in terms of the double quaternions, and this economy of notation enables us to
pin down very complicated formulae in manageable form. The gist of the result in this section is that PH
condition in this setting is the existence of two polynomials f
1
(t ) and f
2
(t ) satisfying
x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
+z

(t )
2
r

(t )
2
= f
1
(t )
2
+f
2
(t )
2
,
which, according to Pottmann and Peternell (1997), is satised for every positive real polynomials,
therefore there is no condition as long as the non-degeneracy (spacelike) condition is imposed. According
to the main result of (H.I. Choi et al., 2002), this condition again naturally gives rises to a polynomial
curve in the even Clifford algebra, which is the main object we deal with in this paper.
In Section 3, we build on these results to study the rational parametrization of the canal surfaces.
In particular, we study its relation with the Lorentzian geometry, and the cyclographic map that was
very protably exploited by Pottmann and others (Pottmann, 1995; L and Pottmann, 1996; Wallner
and Pottmann, 1997; Peternell and Pottmann, 1997, 1998; Pottmann and Peternell, 1998; Pottmann and
Leopoldseder, 2002).
Furthermore, in Section 4, we look at the problem of obtaining the rotation-minimizing rational
parametrization of the canal surfaces. Especially, we formulate the rotation-minimizing parametrization
in a differential-geometric term, and indicate an idea about how approximate solutions may be obtained.
2. Preliminaries
Our basic tool is the Clifford algebra and a map called the PH representation map. Since the formalism
and relevant facts are already available in our earlier paper (H.I. Choi et al., 2002), we will follow the
notations and conventions therein. An interested reader is strongly advised to consult (Crumeyrolle, 1990;
Delanghe et al., 1992; H.I. Choi et al., 2002).
Recall that in (H.I. Choi et al., 2002), the PH representation map T
a
with the base vector a R
3,1
is
the map T
a
: C
+
(3, 1) R
3,1
given by
T
a
(x) =xa x
for any x C
+
(3, 1). C
+
(3, 1)[t ] is dened to be the polynomial ring in t with coefcients in C
+
(3, 1).
Then the PH representation map naturally extends to the map T
a
: C
+
(3, 1)[t ] R
3,1
[t ]
T
a
_
x(t )
_
= x(t )a x(t ),
where R
3,1
[t ] is a polynomial ring in t with coefcients in R
3,1
.
The even Clifford algebra C
+
(3, 1) has the basis
{1, e
23
, e
31
, e
12
, e
14
, e
24
, e
34
, e
1234
}.
Upon writing e
23
= i, e
31
= j, e
12
= k and e
1234
= , the elements 1, i, j, k form the basis of the
quaternion algebra H. Thus, an element x in C
+
(3, 1) can be written as
x =p +q
=p
0
+p
1
i +p
2
j +p
3
k +(q
0
+q
1
i +q
2
j +q
3
k).
Here = e
1234
is called the pseudo-scalar, and satises the relation
2
= 1.
H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339 331
Then,
T
e
1
(x) = xe
1
x
= (p +q)e
1
( p + q)
=
_
p
2
0
+p
2
1
p
2
2
p
2
3
+q
2
0
+q
2
1
q
2
2
q
2
3
_
e
1
+2(p
1
p
2
+p
0
p
3
+q
1
q
2
+q
0
q
3
)e
2
+2(p
1
p
3
p
0
p
2
+q
1
q
3
q
0
q
2
)e
3
+2(p
1
q
0
p
0
q
1
+p
2
q
3
p
3
q
2
)e
4
. (7)
And the norm of x C
+
(3, 1) is given by
N(x) = x x
= (p +q)( p + q)
=
_
|p|
2
|q|
2
_
+(p q +q p).
Note that the norm is not a scalar, but a sum of scalar and pseudo-scalar terms.
Thus if x(t ) C
+
(3, 1)[t ], then its norm is
N
_
x(t )
_
=
_
|p(t )|
2
|q(t )|
2
_
+
_
p(t ) q(t ) +q(t ) p(t )
_
= f
1
(t ) +f
2
(t ),
where f
1
(t ) and f
2
(t ) are polynomials given by
f
1
(t ) =

p(t )

q(t )

2
,
f
2
(t ) = p(t ) q(t ) +q(t ) p(t ).
Then,
x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
+z

(t )
2
r

(t )
2
=

(t )

2
R
3,1
=

T
a
(x(t ))

2
R
3,1
= T
a
_
x(t )
_
T
a
_
x(t )
_
= x(t )ax(t )x(t )ax(t )
= x(t )a
_
f
1
(t ) +f
2
(t )
_
ax(t )
= x(t )
_
f
1
(t ) f
2
(t )
_
a
2
x(t )
= x(t )
_
f
1
(t ) f
2
(t )
_
x(t ) ( a
2
= 1)
=
_
f
1
(t ) f
2
(t )
_
x(t )x(t )
=
_
f
1
(t ) f
2
(t )
__
f
1
(t ) +f
2
(t )
_
= f
1
(t )
2
+f
2
(t )
2
.
For later use, we need to dene a new map R
x
: R
3,1
R
3,1
dened by
R
x
(v) = T
v
(x) = xv x
for v R
3,1
, where x C
+
(3, 1) is xed. This R
x
has the following nice conformal property, which we
use heavily in the subsequent sections.
332 H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339
Proposition 2.1. For any x C
+
(3, 1), R
x
acts on R
3,1
as a linear transform in R
+
SO(3, 1). That
is, R
x
consists of a special orthogonal transform and a magnication. And the magnication factor is
_
f
1
(x)
2
+f
2
(x)
2
. More specically, we have
_
R
x
(a), R
x
(b)
_
R
3,1
= (f
2
1
+f
2
2
)a, b
R
3,1
for vectors a, b in R
3,1
.
Proof. We can prove this by direct calculations:
2
_
R
x
(a), R
x
(b)
_
R
3,1
= R
x
(a)R
x
(b) R
x
(b)R
x
(a)
= xa xxb x xb xxa x
= xa(f
1
+f
2
)b x xb(f
1
+f
2
)a x
= x(f
1
f
2
)ab x x(f
1
f
2
)ba x
= x(f
1
f
2
)(ab ba) x
= x(f
1
f
2
)2a, b
R
3,1 x
= 2x(f
1
f
2
) xa, b
R
3,1
= 2(f
1
f
2
)x xa, b
R
3,1
= 2(f
1
f
2
)(f
1
+f
2
)a, b
R
3,1
= 2(f
2
1
+f
2
2
)a, b
R
3,1 .
One of the main result of (H.I. Choi et al., 2002) is the following theorem, which we call the solution
of the PH Characterization Problem:
Theorem 2.2. Given m(t ) = (x(t ), y(t ), z(t ), r(t )) in R
3,1
[t ] polynomial curve such that

(t )

2
R
3,1
= x

(t )
2
+y

(t )
2
+z

(t )
2
r

(t )
2
= f
1
(t )
2
+f
2
(t )
2
for some polynomial functions f
1
(t ), f
2
(t ), there exist x(t ) C
+
(3, 1)[t ] s.t. m

(t ) = T
e
1
(x(t )).
Corollary 2.3. If m(t ) = (x(t ), y(t ), z(t ), r(t )) satises the condition of Theorem 2.2, then there exist 8
polynomials p
k
(t ), q
k
(t ) for k = 0, . . . , 3 satisfying the following relations.
x

(t ) = p
0
(t )
2
+p
1
(t )
2
p
2
(t )
2
p
3
(t )
2
+q
0
(t )
2
+q
1
(t )
2
q
2
(t )
2
q
3
(t )
2
,
y

(t ) = 2
_
p
1
(t )p
2
(t ) +p
0
(t )p
3
(t ) +q
1
(t )q
2
(t ) +q
0
(t )q
3
(t )
_
,
z

(t ) = 2
_
p
1
(t )p
3
(t ) p
0
(t )p
2
(t ) +q
1
(t )q
3
(t ) q
0
(t )q
2
(t )
_
,
r

(t ) = 2
_
p
1
(t )q
0
(t ) p
0
(t )q
1
(t ) +p
2
(t )q
3
(t ) p
3
(t )q
2
(t )
_
,
f
1
(t ) = p
0
(t )
2
+p
1
(t )
2
+p
2
(t )
2
+p
3
(t )
2
q
0
(t )
2
q
1
(t )
2
q
2
(t )
2
q
3
(t )
2
,
f
2
(t ) = 2
_
p
0
(t )q
0
(t ) +p
1
(t )q
1
(t ) +p
2
(t )q
2
(t ) +p
3
(t )q
3
(t )
_
.
It should be remarked that the condition of Theorem 2.2 is always naturally satised if m(t ) is
polynomial that denes a spacelike curve in R
3,1
. Namely, it is well-known that any real polynomial
p(t ) which is positive(nonnegative) for all values of t R is of the form
p(t ) =f
1
(t )
2
+f
2
(t )
2
H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339 333
for some polynomial f
1
(t ) and f
2
(t ) (see, for example, (Peternell and Pottmann, 1997)). Using this we
have the following remarkable result:
Theorem 2.4. Any spacelike curve m(t ) in R
3,1
with polynomial co-ordinate functions dened for all t
is a Pythagorean Hodograph curve.
Note that this fact is in marked contrast with that in lower dimension (Farouki and Sakkalis, 1990,
1994; Dietz et al., 1993).
3. Lorentzian geometry of canal surfaces
We now present a new method of rationally parametrizing canal surfaces using the Lorentzian
geometry. The canal surface we are dealing with is either of rational or of polynomial type. By the
canal surface of rational type, we mean a canal surface whose spine curve and radius function are both
rational functions of the parameter t , and when the spine and radius function are polynomials of t , we
say it is of polynomial type.
For the canal surface of rational type, the best known result is due to Peternell and Pottmann (1997), in
which they proved that every rational canal surface can be rationally parametrized. Their result, however,
has some drawbacks. One is that it is necessary to nd all roots of a polynomial. Another is that the
resulting parametrization sometimes unnecessarily winds around.
In this paper, we propose a different approach. Before we go on, let us rst be clear about the represen-
tation of the canal surfaces we deal with. First of all, we can deal with both rational and polynomial type
canal surfaces. But since it is easier, in the course of the solutions of the PH Characterization Problem,
to handle the rational type, we will mostly deal with the more difcult one, i.e., the canal surfaces of
polynomial type. The relevant formalism is elaborated below (however, our argument equally applies to
the rational case without much change). Once a canal surface of polynomial type is given, by the solu-
tion of the PH Characterization Problem presented above, we can shift our argument to the Minkowski
space R
3,1
. We can then rewrite the geometry of the characteristic circle in terms of the Lorentzian
geometry of the Minkowski space, which in turn gives a natural rational parametrization.
This way, we can naturally solve the geometric problem of parametrizing the canal surfaces purely
by geometric arguments, thereby avoiding the cumbersome algorithmic procedure of polynomial root-
nding as given in (Peternell and Pottmann, 1997). We believe that our argument, besides being directly
geometric, has an added advantage of naturally identifying one free parameter that can be ddled to make
the rational parametrization nearly rotation minimizing.
3.1. Rational parametrization of canal surfaces
Let
m(t ) =
_
s(t ), r(t )
_
=
_
x(t ), y(t ), z(t ), r(t )
_
be a spacelike curve in R
3,1
that represents the canal surface. As usual, we assume x(t ), y(t ), z(t ), and
r(t ) are polynomials in t . Then by the solution of the PH Characterization Problem, there exists a curve
x(t ) C
+
(3, 1)[t ] satisfying T
e
1
(x(t )) = m

(t ). Thus we may as well treat x(t ) as given rst, and m(t ) as

334 H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339
something that can be derived from x(t ), which is the viewpoint we are taking here. However, a word of
caution is in order. It is true that x(t ) can be found from m(t ) by the solution of the PH Characterization
Problem. In practice, however, it may not be an easy problem to solve although it is certainly doable
if one follows the argument in (H.I. Choi et al., 2002). A more practical situation in which x(t ) arises
naturally would be the Hermite interpolation problem, which is roughly described as nding a one-
parameter family of spheres connecting two given spheres with prescribed end directions. This problem
can be turned into the usual Hermitian interpolation problem for the curves in R
3,1
by lifting all data
to R
3,1
. The solution of this problem then directly yields x(t ). Anyhow, our overriding assumption is that
x(t ) is a given fundamental construct of the canal surface, and thus m(t ) is derivable by the formula
m

(t ) = T
e
1
_
x(t )
_
= R
x(t )
(e
1
). (8)
Our main tool is R-map and Proposition 2.1. Recall that, in Section 1, = (t, u) is the unit vector
in R
3
that parametrizes the characteristic circle k(t ) =(t )

(t ). Dene c = c(t, u) in R
3,1
by
c = (, 1). (9)
Then ||
R
3 =1 is equivalent to saying that c is a lightlike vector in R
3,1
, i.e.,
|c|
2
R
3,1
= ||
2
R
3
1 = 0. (10)
Recall as usual that m

(t ) = (s

(t ), r

(t )). Then the dening equation (3) of the characteristic circle k(t )
is equivalent to
m

, c
R
3,1 = 0. (11)
Our strategy is to nd a suitable
v =v(t, u) =a(t, u)e
1
+b(t, u)e
2
+c(t, u)e
3
+d(t, u)e
4
in R
3,1
so that upon setting
c = R
x(t )
(v),
Eqs. (10) and (11) are satised.
We thus require v to satisfy
e
1
, v
R
3,1 = 0,
|v|
R
3,1 = 0.
Then Proposition 2.1 trivially implies Eqs. (10) and (11). The above equations then reduce to
a = 0, b
2
+c
2
d
2
= 0. (12)
There are many ways to parametrize b, c, and d. One way is to assume they are independent of t
depending only on the parameter u. One example of such parametrization is, in homogeneous co-
ordinates,
[b, c, d] =
_
1 u
2
, 2u, 1 +u
2
_
.
If we denote the component of b(u)R
x(t )
(e
2
) + c(u)R
x(t )
(e
3
) + d(u)R
x(t )
(e
4
) by (U
1
(t, u), U
2
(t, u),
U
3
(t, u), U
4
(t, u)), then the parametrization of the lightcone c = (, 1) is given by setting
(t, u) =
_

U
1
(t, u)
U
4
(t, u)
,
U
2
(t, u)
U
4
(t, u)
,
U
3
(t, u)
U
4
(t, u)
_
.
H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339 335
Fig. 2. Rational parametrization of canal surface.
Here, note that we do not need to worry about the case U
4
(t, u) = 0 because if U
4
(t, u) = 0 for some
(t, u) then all U
j
(t, u) = 0 for j = 1, 2, 3 simultaneously, so these zero sets can be factored out in the
above equations.
We then get the rational parametrization of a canal surface by applying this (t, u) to the following
equation:
(t, u) =
_
x(t ), y(t ), z(t )
_
+r(t )(t, u).
This parametrization is more or less equivalent to the one given by Pottmann and Peternell (1997).
Fig. 2 is the result of this parametrization. A more general and perhaps better parametrization can be
obtained by setting b, c, and d to depend on t and u at the same time. This viewpoint will be exploited
in Section 4.
3.2. Geometric interpretation in terms of the cyclographic mapping
Our approach illustrated above has a few interesting geometric aspects that deserve further
clarication. First of all, the correspondence between the point m = (s, r) R
3,1
and the sphere in R
3
with the center s and the radius r is well known. Pottmann called it the cyclographic map, which is
dened to be the map
: R
4
C
by letting (s
1
, s
2
, s
3
, r) is the oriented sphere C C with the center s = (s
1
, s
2
, s
3
) and the oriented
radius r, where C is the set of the oriented sphere in R
3
. So, the canal surface is the envelope surface of
the image (m(t )), where m(t ) is a curve in R
4
. (Here, we regard R
4
as R
3,1
, the difference being the
choice of the inner product.) The -cone is the hypercone of revolution with vertex m R
4
, whose axis
is parallel to the x
4
-axis and whose generators enclose the angle /4 with the x
4
-axis. The -preimage
336 H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339
Fig. 3. Cyclographic map and canal surface.
of all cycles C being in oriented contact with a xed hyperplane H: u
0
+ u
1
x
1
+ u
2
x
2
+ u
3
x
3
= 0 with
u
2
1
+ u
2
2
+ u
2
3
= 1 in R
3
is given by
1
(H): u
0
+ u
1
x
1
+ u
2
x
2
+ u
3
x
3
+ x
4
= 0. This hyperplane in R
4
is called a -hyperplane. A -hyperplane touches the -cones of its point along generators of -cones,
which is denoted by -lines.
In view of the cyclographic map, the -cone in R
3,1
with the vertex m(t ) = (s(t ), r(t )) is the lightlike
cone generated by the past-pointing lightlike vectors (see Fig. 3). It is clear that -cones are the cones
over 2-sphere. To simplify the argument, we parallely move the vertex of the -cone to the origin. Let
= {x R
3,1
| x, m

R
3,1 = 0}. In other word, is the timelike plane through the origin which is
perpendicular to the spacelike vector m

in R
3,1
. Then Eqs. (10) and (11) mean that c is the intersection
of with the lightcone (see Fig. 4). Thus the resulting intersection becomes the cone K over a circle S
1
.
This circle S
1
is the characteristic circle (translated by the translation of m(t ) to the origin) given at
the beginning of this paper. Since c = (, 1), i.e., the last co-ordinate is xed 1, the free parameter
parametrizing K can only be chosen along S
1
which accounts for the parameter u in the above subsection.
Rephrased in our language, what Pottmann and Peternell did in their work is to x the parametrization
of such S
1
for every m(t ) by the use of the same stereographic projection. What we did above is that
we utilize the R-map instead. In other words, our geometric setting is a little more general, hence more
exible, substitute for Pottmann and Peternells stereographic projection. In this way we can formulate,
at least in theory, a better parametrization scheme, as illustrated in the next section.
4. An approach toward the rotation minimizing parametrization
As we mentioned above, our parametrization given in Section 3.1 may suffer from the problem of
excessive rotation, as the one given by Pottmann and Peternell does. In application, this may cause some
undesirable side effects. Thus it is certainly desirable to reduce, and hopefully eliminate, the rotational
effect. For this, let us rst look at the rotation equation.
H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339 337
Fig. 4. Characteristic circle S
1
as an intersection of and the lightcone.
Rotation minimizing parametrization has been extensively studied in the context of sweep surface.
(Sweep surface in the context of canal surfaces corresponds to the pipe surface, which is a special canal
surface with constant radius.) For example, F. Klok studied the rotation minimizing sweep by xing the
rotation of moving co-ordinate frame (Klok, 1986), and Pottmann and Wagner showed how to obtain all
rational rolling plane motions (Pottmann and Wagner, 1977, 1998).
The rotation in our context is computed according as how much the normalized normal component
of , i.e.,

/|

|, differs from being parallel in the normal bundle along the curve s(t ) in R
3
. Note that
a unit normal vector eld v(t ) along s(t ) is parallel in the normal bundle, if
(D
s
v)

=
_
v

(t )
_

= 0.
Thus the ideal situation would be the case that
_
D
s

|
_

= 0.
The left hand side of the above equality is unfortunately rather complicated as the following expression
shows
_
D
s

|
_

=
__

|
_

=
_

, (

3/2

+
(

|
_

338 H.C. Cho et al. / Computer Aided Geometric Design 21 (2004) 327339
=

, (

|
3

+
1
|

|
__

, s

, s

, (

|
3

+
1
|

|
_

_
, s

, s

, s

, s

, (

|
3

+
1
|

|
_

, s

, s

, s

, s

_
.
This is certainly a nonlinear O.D.E. in , which most certainly precludes any rational solution (t ).
Thus the best one can hope for is to set up a reasonable function space and minimizing the integrated
error term
1
_
0

_
D
s

|
_

2
dt. (13)
One way we can suggest as a theoretical basis is as follows: First write down the polynomials b =
b(t ), c = c(t ), and d = d(t ) with coefcients b
k
, c
k
, and d
k
for k = 0, . . . , n. Then (13) is an expression
involving the coefcients b
k
, c
k
, and d
k
. Choose suitable such coefcients that make the error (13) as
small as can be tolerated.
This b(t ), c(t ), and d(t ) should give a reasonably nice reference curve. To parametrize the whole canal
surface, choose u
0
= u
0
(t ) such that, in homogeneous co-ordinates,
_
1 u
0
(t )
2
, 2u
0
(t ), 1 +u
0
(t )
2
_

_
b(t ), c(t ), d(t )
_
.
Then make b, c, and d depend also on u by setting b(t, 0) = b(t ), c(t, 0) = c(t ), d(t, 0) = d(t ), and
_
b(t, u), c(t, u), d(t, u)
_

_
1 (u +u
0
)
2
, 2(u +u
0
), 1 +(u +u
0
)
2
_
. (14)
Proceeding as in Section 3.2, (14) gives rise to a parametrization with almost no rotation of the canal
surface.
Finally, we should mention that the drawback of the approach outlined in this section is that the integral
(13) may not be easy to compute and handle properly.
We hope that we will be able to come back to this point in our future work.
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