A hybrid clough-tocher radial basis function method for modelling leaf surfaces

We present a novel hybrid approach for leaf surface fitting that combines Clough-Tocher (CT) and radial basis function (RBF) methods to achieve a surface with a continuously turning normal. The hybrid CT-RBF method is shown to give good representations of a Frangipani leaf and an Anthurium leaf. The issues reported here include: the selection of points from the leaf data set; choice of RBF and suitable width parameter; the use of local or global RBF interpolates; visualization of the leaf model. The development of the algorithm has been made to facilitate the understanding of leaf surface properties, such as the path of droplets and nutrient and pesticide deposition. The method reported is generally applicable to scattered data and has the potential for application to the numerical solution of partial differential equations.