Path simplification for computer graphics applications

A method comprising:

• accessing an original path representative of an original geometry to be simplified, the original path comprising initial anchor points and initial segments connecting the anchor points;
• simplifying the original path by decreasing a number of initial anchor points connecting initial segments by:
• generating an initial simplified path comprising a selection of initial parametric values and initial candidate anchor points selected from a subset of initial anchor points of the initial anchor points, wherein a number of the initial candidate anchor points is less than a number of the initial anchor points;
• based on a deviation of the initial simplified path from the original path being above a predetermined threshold, iteratively generating candidate simplified paths, each candidate simplified path generated in response to a deviation value of a current candidate simplified path being over the predetermined threshold, by updating candidate parametric values and candidate anchor points selected from a subset of the initial candidate anchor points corresponding to a previous candidate simplified path of a previous iteration, wherein the candidate parametric values and the candidate anchor points define the candidate simplified path at each iteration and the deviation value representing a deviation between the current candidate simplified path and the original path, wherein the deviation is determined using a distance function that calculates the distance of anchor points of the current candidate simplified path to a corresponding segment of the original path;
• at each iteration, in response to the deviation value being above an error threshold, determining an end point on the original path where a distance between the end point and a corresponding candidate end point on the candidate simplified path is above a predetermined fraction of the error threshold and, as a result, causing a first portion of the current candidate simplified path to be maintained as at least a portion of a simplified path corresponding to the original path;
• and
• in response to the deviation value at a current iteration being below the predetermined threshold, causing presentation of a representation of the candidate simplified path associated with the current iteration as the simplified path corresponding to the original path.

A computing system comprising:

• one or more hardware processors and memory configured to provide computer program instructions to the one or more hardware processors;
• a learning engine configured to use the one or more hardware processors to:
• access an original path comprising initial segments associated with corresponding initial anchor points representing an input geometry;
• divide the original path into a set of subdivided segments associated with corresponding set of end points based at least in part on one of a length of the original path, a curvature of the original path, and a predetermined deviation threshold;
• generate an initial simplified path comprising a selection of initial parametric values associated with the set of end points and initial candidate anchor points selected from the initial anchor points, wherein a number of initial candidate anchor points is less than a number of initial anchor points in the original path;
• in response to a deviation value, determined using a distance function that calculates a distance between a first section of the original path and a first section of the initial simplified path corresponding to the first section of the original path being over a first fraction of the predetermined deviation threshold, determine a second section of the initial simplified path to be maintained;
• and
• for the second section of the initial simplified path, determine a simplified path where the deviation value is less than the predetermined deviation threshold.