Natural neighbor interpolation is a method of spatial interpolation, developed by Robin Sibson. The method is based on Voronoi tessellation of a discrete set of spatial points. This has advantages over simpler methods of interpolation, such as nearest-neighbor interpolation, in that it provides a more smooth approximation to the underlying "true" function.
The basic equation in 2D is:
where is the estimate at , are the weights and are the known data at . The weights, , are calculated by finding how much of each of the surrounding areas is "stolen" when inserting into the tessellation.
- Sibson, R. (1981). "A brief description of natural neighbor interpolation (Chapter 2)". In V. Barnett. Interpreting Multivariate Data. Chichester: John Wiley. pp. 21–36.
- Natural Neighbor Interpolation
- Introduction to natural neighbors
- Implementation notes for natural neighbor, and comparison to other interpolation methods
- Interactive Voronoi diagram and natural neighbor interpolation visualization
|This applied mathematics-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|