Introduction This study deals with detection of high curvature points in planar curves. Locations of significant changes in curve slope are, in that respect, similar to intensity edges. If these characteristic contour points are identified properly, a shape can be represented in an efficient and compact way with accuracy sufficient in many shape analysis problems. Corner detection in planar curves is related to corner detection in grayscale images which is not addressed here. However, in many online applications, especially in industry, processing time is a crucial issue.
Computational load is to be minimized without significant loss of robustness.
Various less complicated corner detection algorithms have been developed. In this study, these algorithms are referred to as RJ73, RW75, FD77, and BT87, respectively. RW75 is a modification of RJ73, while BT87 is a modification of FD77. A summary of the four algorithms is given in section 2 . Although the notion of corner seems to be intuitively clear, no generally accepted mathematical definition exists, at least for digital curves.