vector fitting using metaball

I have been unsuccessfully trying to calculate a raster to vector type function like an autotrace feature in Illustrator. This previous discussion has a far better solution to that particular problem

http://www.grasshopper3d.com/forum/top

ics/generating-precise-2d-outline 

but I was still trying out other methods and stumbled across using the metaball tool to fit curves to an image. It produces some pretty interesting results. The images generated are very abstract but still represent the original image. They are all closed boundaries created with a level input slider so if you set that to 8 levels you end up with 8 different colored sets of curves (they can easily be made into planar surfaces as well). I don't know how much value this definition has but it's fun to use to make drawings and if you had a polargraph machine or a pen plotter it could be easily used. metaball_vector_fitting.gh

Here are links to some videos of the tool in use -

vector_fitting_lines from MachineHistories on Vimeo.

vector_fitting_colors from MachineHistories on Vimeo.