Student(s):
Pavel Zelinsky
Dates of Involvement:
Sept. 2009-June 2010
Faculty Advisor(s):
John Flynt
Graduate Mentor:
Spline Exploration Lab Development
Background
Interpolation is a common problem in many fields, whether it is interpolating a set of points for a graph or putting together a quick animation. The cubic spline is one of the most common interpolation methods since it is fast and produces a very nice and smooth looking curve. Flash has a built in spline, but it is done through Bezier Curves. My annoyance with Bezier Curves is that the curve does not go through the specified point, but gravitates towards it. In terms of graph point fitting or animation control that will not always work properly. Also Flash only allows the user to specify the motion nodes for the object after which the object gets moved along the specified Bezier Curves, which is problematic for curve fitting since the points that the object will go through are not given to us, thus we must create an invisible object and extract the points it goes through in order to create the curve.
Application Development
My project is to either have a student create the cubic spline or be simply given the code for how to construct the cubic spline and then learn how to use it for all kinds of problems. I am making several examples of how this works as well as explanations on how to recreate the examples and to expand on them. My current example ideas are: simple object motion along set nodes, curve fitting with dynamically created and moved nodes, and a simple animation with multiple pieces that move around.
Collaboration I will be working with other team members to create more spline applications. I could also collaborate with the Computer Science department to try to test the usefulness of the application.
About Pavel Zelinsky:
Pavel Zelinsky is pursuing double majors in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics.
