An axiomatic approach to scalar data interpolation on surfaces

We discuss possible algorithms for interpolating data given on a set of curves in a surface of ℝ³. We propose a set of basic assumptions to be satisfied by the interpolation algorithms which lead to a set of models in terms of possibly degenerate elliptic partial differential equations. The Absolutely Minimizing Lipschitz Extension model (AMLE) is singled out and studied in more detail. We study the correctness of our numerical approach and we show experiments illustrating the interpolation of data on some simple test surfaces like the sphere and the torus.