A linear algorithm for polygonal approximations of thick curves

The concept of fuzzy segment was introduced in [2]. In this paper we suggest a notion of strict fuzzy segment and provide a linear algorithm for recognizing it thanks to a simple property of convex hull. A linear method to decompose a thick curve into strict fuzzy segments is also given. The quality of decomposition can be easily controlled by setting two threshold values: the maximum order and the minimum density of the fuzzy segments. The algorithm is fast, practical and multi-purpose.