Simple method for computing distance between point and an ellipse

I found a paper using a similar idea (but using a different method to step the parameter) to find the orthogonal projection onto curves. It also converges quadraticaly, and seems a little faster through my experiments. http://www.geometrie.tugraz.at/wallner/sproj.pdf

Congrats on the find, although I'm not familiar with any of the material presented it's a clear and nicely written Blog Post.