Patent ID: 7925094

Claim:
A non-transitory computer readable medium storing thereon a program for encoding the conformation of a given curve, the encoding program comprising: a point selection module for selecting representative points on a given curve; an arrangement module for putting an elemental structure block which consists of a trunk and branches, where each branch is connected to the same end point of the trunk in a predetermined configuration and assigned a different code, on each of the representative points in such a way that the connection point of the trunk and branches of the block coincides with the position of the corresponding representative point; a branch selection module for selecting a branch from each of the blocks arranged above, successively along the curve starting from the first representative point to the last representative point, which represents the gradient of the curve at the corresponding representative point most appropriately; an adjustment module for adjusting spacial orientation of the elemental structure blocks arranged above, just after selection of the most appropriate branch of a block (current block) and before selection of the most appropriate branch of the block assigned to the next representative point (next block), in such a way that the direction and rotational orientation of the trunk of the next block coincide with the predetermined direction and rotational orientation assigned to the selected branch of the current block; and a code generator module for generating data which describe the conformation of the curve, using the code of the selected branches of the elemental structure blocks assigned to the representative points of the curve.