In this paper we introduce a novel representation of the significant changes in curvature along the bounding contour of planar shape. We call the representation the curvature primal sketch. We describe an implemented algorithm that computes the curvature primal sketch and illustrate its performance on a set of tool shapes. The curvature primal sketch derives its name from the close analogy to the primal sketch representation advocated by Marr for describing significant intensity changes. We define a set of primitive parameterized curvature discontinuities, and derive expressions for their convolutions with the first and second derivatives of a Gaussian. The convolved primitives, sorted according to the scale at which they are detected, provide us with a multi-scaled interpretation of the contour of a shape.
