Naively, the matching of two polygonal curves requires the computation of an optimal similarity transformation that maps one curve onto the other. Curvature, as defined for continuous curves, is invariant under rigid motions and to a certain extend also under affine transformations. To circumvent the computations involved in searching the transformation space, the curvature functions will be matched directly. Different ways of defining the curvature for polygonal curves will be surveyed as well as the possibility of admitting different parametrizations and whether the curvature alone suffices for a good similarity measure.

All implementations will be in Java.

The thesis is partly supervised by Jean Gallier, University of Pennsylvania.