Describe B-splines

[mgeier]

• sames smoothness as natural splines, not interpolating (only approximating) but local control
• "B" stands for "basis". Why?
• control points are called "de Boor" control points?
• curve lies within the convex hull of the control points (like Bézier)
• starting point for NURBS
• generalization of Bezier splines: "If n = p (i.e., the degree of a B-spline curve is equal to n, the number of control points minus 1), and there are 2(p + 1) = 2(n + 1) knots with p + 1 of them clamped at each end, this B-spline curve reduces to a Bézier curve."