Pure Python implementation of the Ramer-Douglas-Peucker algorithm (Ramer 1972; Douglas and Peucker 1973).

The Ramer-Douglas-Peucker algorithm is an algorithm for reducing the number of points in a curve that is approximated by a series of points.

pip install rdp

Simple pythonic interface:

from rdp import rdp

rdp([[1, 1], [2, 2], [3, 3], [4, 4]])

[[1, 1], [4, 4]]

With epsilon=0.5:

rdp([[1, 1], [1, 1.1], [2, 2]], epsilon=0.5)

[[1.0, 1.0], [2.0, 2.0]]

Numpy interface:

import numpy as np
from rdp import rdp

rdp(np.array([1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4]).reshape(4, 2))

array([[1, 1],
       [4, 4]])

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Douglas, David H, and Thomas K Peucker. 1973. “Algorithms for the Reduction of the Number of Points Required to Represent a Digitized Line or Its Caricature.” Cartographica: The International Journal for Geographic Information and Geovisualization 10 (2): 112–122.

Ramer, Urs. 1972. “An Iterative Procedure for the Polygonal Approximation of Plane Curves.” Computer Graphics and Image Processing 1 (3): 244–256.