Patent ID: 8483505

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of rendering a piece-wise smooth image, said image specified by image values along opposite sides of paths, said method comprising: converting said paths to chains of straight line segments and setting image values for each side of each line segment; determining first and second coefficients for each line segment, said first coefficient for each line segment being based on a difference between said specified image values on opposite sides of the segment, said second coefficient for each line segment being based on an average of said image values on opposite sides of the segment; and calculating each image value as the addition of a sum over all line segments of the product of the first coefficient for a segment with a value for a dipole potential field function for the segment, being an integral of dipole fields centered at points along the segment, and a sum over all line segments of the product of the second coefficient for a segment with a value for a logarithmic potential field function for the segment, being an integral of logarithmic fields centered at point along the segment.