Wikipedia
B-spline
In the mathematical subfield of numerical analysis, a B-spline, or basis spline, is a spline function that has minimal support with respect to a given degree, smoothness, and domain partition. Any spline function of given degree can be expressed as a linear combination of B-splines of that degree. Cardinal B-splines have knots that are equidistant from each other. B-splines can be used for curve-fitting and numerical differentiation of experimental data.
In the computer-aided design and computer graphics, spline functions are constructed as linear combinations of B-splines with a set of control points.