Computing euclidean maximum spanning trees

An algorithm is presented for finding a maximum-weight spanning tree of a set ofn points in the Euclidean plane, where the weight of an edge (p _i ,p _j ) equals the Euclidean distance between the pointsp _i andp _j . The algorithm runs inO(n logh) time and requiresO(n) space;h denotes the number of points on the convex hull of the given set. If the points are vertices of a convex polygon (given in order along the boundary), then our algorithm requires only a linear amount of time and space. These bounds are the best possible in the algebraic computation-tree model. We also establish various properties of maximum spanning trees that can be exploited to solve other geometric problems.     

On the All-Farthest-Segments problem for a planar set of points

In this note, we outline a very simple algorithm for the following problem: Given a set S of n points p₁,p₂,p₃,…,pn in the plane, we have O(n²) segments implicitly defined on pairs of these n points. For each point pi, find a segment from this set of implicitly defined segments that is farthest from pi. The time complexity of our algorithm is in O(nh+nlogn), where n is the number of input points, and h is the number of vertices on the convex hull of S.     

Grade of Service Steiner Minimum Trees in the Euclidean Plane

Abstract. Let P = {p ₁ , p ₂ , \ldots, p _n } be a set of n {\lilsf terminal points} in the Euclidean plane, where point p _i has a {\lilsf service request of grade} g(p _i ) ∈ {1, 2, \ldots, n} . Let 0 < c(1) < c(2) < ?s < c(n) be n real numbers. The {\lilsf Grade of Service Steiner Minimum Tree (GOSST)} problem asks for a minimum cost network interconnecting point set P and some {\lilsf Steiner points} with a service request of grade 0 such that (1) between each pair of terminal points p _i and p _j there is a path whose minimum grade of service is at least as large as \min(g(p _i ), g(p _j )) ; and (2) the cost of the network is minimum among all interconnecting networks satisfying (1), where the cost of an edge with service of grade g is the product of the Euclidean length of the edge with c(g) . The GOSST problem is a generalization of the Euclidean Steiner minimum tree problem where all terminal points have the same grade of service request. When there are only two (three, respectively) different grades of service request by the terminal points, we present a polynomial time approximation algorithm with performance ratio \frac 4 3 ρ (((5+4\sqrt 2 )/7)ρ , respectively), where ρ is the performance ratio achieved by an approximation algorithm for the Euclidean Steiner minimum tree problem. For the general case, we prove that there exists a GOSST that is the minimum cost network under a full Steiner topology or its degeneracies. A powerful interior-point algorithm is used to find a (1+ε) -approximation to the minimum cost network under a given topology or its degeneracies in O(n ^1.5 (log n + log (1/ε))) time. We also prove a lower bound theorem which enables effective pruning in a branch-and-bound method that partially enumerates the full Steiner topologies in search for a GOSST. We then present a k -optimal heuristic algorithm to compute good solutions when the problem size is too large for the branch-and-bound algorithm. Preliminary computational results are presented.     

Fast computation of smallest enclosing circle with center on a query line segment

Here we propose an efficient algorithm for computing the smallest enclosing circle whose center is constrained to lie on a query line segment. Our algorithm preprocesses a given set of n points P={p₁,p₂,…,pn} such that for any query line or line segment L, it efficiently locates a point c on L that minimizes the maximum distance among the points in P from c. Roy et al. [S. Roy, A. Karmakar, S. Das, S.C. Nandy, Constrained minimum enclosing circle with center on a query line segment, in: Proc. of the 31st Mathematical Foundation of Computer Science, 2006, pp. 765-776] have proposed an algorithm that solves the query problem in O(log²n) time using O(nlogn) preprocessing time and O(n) space. Our algorithm improves the query time to O(logn); but the preprocessing time and space complexities are both O(n²).     

Output-Sensitive Algorithm for Computing β-Skeletons

The β-skeleton is a measure of the internal shape of a planar set of points. We get an entire spectrum of shapes by varying the parameter β. For a fixed value of β, a β-skeleton is a geometric graph obtained by joining each pair of points whose β-neighborhood is empty. For β≥1, this neighborhood of a pair of points p _i ,p _j is the interior of the intersection of two circles of radius , centered at the points (1−β/2)p _i +(β/2)p _j and (β/2)p _i +(1−β/2)p _j , respectively. For β∈(0,1], it is the interior of the intersection of two circles of radius , passing through p _i and p _j . In this paper we present an output-sensitive algorithm for computing a β-skeleton in the metrics l ₁ and l _∞ for any β≥2. This algorithm is in O(nlogn+k), where k is size of the output graph. The complexity of the previous best known algorithm is in O(n ^5/2logn) [7]. Received April 26, 2000     

Online Dynamic Programming Speedups

Consider the dynamic program h(n)=min _1≤j≤n a(n,j), where a(n,j) is some formula that may (online) or may not (offline) depend on the previously computed h(i), for i<n. The goal is to compute all h(n), for 1≤n≤N. It is well known that, if a(n,j) satisfy the Monge property, then the SMAWK algorithm (Aggarwal et al., Algorithmica 2(1):195–208, 1987) can solve the offline problem in O(N) time; a Θ(N) speedup over the naive algorithm. In this paper we extend this speedup to the online case, that is, to compute h(n) in the order n=1,2,…,N when (i) we do not know the values of a(n′,j) for n′>n before h(n) has been computed and (ii) do not know the problem size N in advance. We show that if a(n,j) satisfy a stronger, but sometimes still natural, property than the Monge one, then each h(n) can be computed in online fashion in O(1) amortized time. This maintains the speedup online, in the sense that the total time to compute all h(n) is O(N). We also show how to compute each h(n) in the worst case O(log N) time, while maintaining the amortized time bound. For a(n,j) satisfying our stronger property, our algorithm is also simpler than the standard SMAWK algorithm for solving the offline case. We illustrate our technique on two examples from the literature; the first is the D-median problem on a line, and the second comes from mobile wireless paging. The research of the first author was partially supported by the NSF program award CNS-0626606; the research of the second and third authors was partially supported by Hong Kong RGC CERG grant HKUST6312/04E.     

Grade of Service Steiner Minimum Trees in the Euclidean Plane

Abstract. Let P = {p ₁ , p ₂ , \ldots, p _n } be a set of n {\lilsf terminal points} in the Euclidean plane, where point p _i has a {\lilsf service request of grade} g(p _i ) ∈ {1, 2, \ldots, n} . Let 0 < c(1) < c(2) < ⋅s < c(n) be n real numbers. The {\lilsf Grade of Service Steiner Minimum Tree (GOSST)} problem asks for a minimum cost network interconnecting point set P and some {\lilsf Steiner points} with a service request of grade 0 such that (1) between each pair of terminal points p _i and p _j there is a path whose minimum grade of service is at least as large as \min(g(p _i ), g(p _j )) ; and (2) the cost of the network is minimum among all interconnecting networks satisfying (1), where the cost of an edge with service of grade g is the product of the Euclidean length of the edge with c(g) . The GOSST problem is a generalization of the Euclidean Steiner minimum tree problem where all terminal points have the same grade of service request. When there are only two (three, respectively) different grades of service request by the terminal points, we present a polynomial time approximation algorithm with performance ratio \frac 4 3 ρ (((5+4\sqrt 2 )/7)ρ , respectively), where ρ is the performance ratio achieved by an approximation algorithm for the Euclidean Steiner minimum tree problem. For the general case, we prove that there exists a GOSST that is the minimum cost network under a full Steiner topology or its degeneracies. A powerful interior-point algorithm is used to find a (1+ε) -approximation to the minimum cost network under a given topology or its degeneracies in O(n ^1.5 (log n + log (1/ε))) time. We also prove a lower bound theorem which enables effective pruning in a branch-and-bound method that partially enumerates the full Steiner topologies in search for a GOSST. We then present a k -optimal heuristic algorithm to compute good solutions when the problem size is too large for the branch-and-bound algorithm. Preliminary computational results are presented.     

Fitting a least squares piecewise linear continuous curve in two dimensions

An optimal piecewise linear continuous fit to a given set of n data points D = {(x_i, y_i) : 1 ≤ i ≤ n} in two dimensions consists of a continuous curve defined by k linear segments {L₁, L₂,…,L_k} which minimizes a weighted least squares error function with weight w_i at (x_i, y_i), where k ≥ 1 is a given integer. A key difficulty here is the fact that the linear segment L_j, which approximates a subset of consecutive data points D_j ⊂ D in an optimal solution, is not necessarily an optimal fit in itself for the points D_j. We solve the problem for the special case k = 2 by showing that an optimal solution essentially consists of two least squares linear regression lines in which the weight w_j of some data point (x_j, y_j) is split into the weights λw_j and (1 − λ)w_j, 0 ≤ λ ≤ 1, for computations of these lines. This gives an algorithm of worst-case complexity O(n) for finding an optimal solution for the case k = 2.     

An optimal algorithm for constructing the weighted voronoi diagram in the plane

Let S denote a set of n points in the plane such that each point p has assigned a positive weight w(p) which expresses its capability to influence its neighbourhood. In this sense, the weighted distance of an arbitrary point x from p is given by d_e(x,p)/w(p) where d_e denotes the Euclidean distance function. The weighted Voronoi diagram for S is a subdivision of the plane such that each point p in S is associated with a region consisting of all points x in the plane for which p is a weighted nearest point of S.An algorithm which constructs the weighted Voronoi diagram for S in O(n²) time is outlined in this paper. The method is optimal as the diagram can consist of Θ(n²) faces, edges and vertices.     

L 1 shortest paths among polygonal obstacles in the plane

We present an algorithm for computingL ₁ shortest paths among polygonal obstacles in the plane. Our algorithm employs the “continuous Dijkstra” technique of propagating a “wavefront” and runs in timeO(E logn) and spaceO(E), wheren is the number of vertices of the obstacles andE is the number of “events.” By using bounds on the density of certain sparse binary matrices, we show thatE =O(n logn), implying that our algorithm is nearly optimal. We conjecture thatE =O(n), which would imply our algorithm to be optimal. Previous bounds for our problem were quadratic in time and space. Our algorithm generalizes to the case of fixed orientation metrics, yielding anO(n?^?1/2 log² n) time andO(n?^?1/2) space approximation algorithm for finding Euclidean shortest paths among obstacles. The algorithm further generalizes to the case of many sources, allowing us to compute anL ₁ Voronoi diagram for source points that lie among a collection of polygonal obstacles.     

The region approach for computing relative neighbourhood graphs in the Lp metric

The following geometrical proximity concepts are discussed: relative closeness and geographic closeness. Consider a setV={v ₁,v ₂, ...,v _n } of distinct points in atwo-dimensional space. The pointv _j is said to be arelative neighbour ofv _i ifd _p (v _i ,v _j )≤max{d _p (v _j ,v _k ),d _p (v _j ,v _k )} for allv _k ∈V, whered _p denotes the distance in theL _p metric, 1≤p≤∞. After dividing the space around the pointv _i into eight sectors (regions) of equal size, a closest point tov _i in some region is called anoctant (region, orgeographic) neighbour ofv _i. For anyL _p metric, a relative neighbour ofv _i is always an octant neighbour in some region atv _i. This gives a direct method for computing all relative neighbours, i.e. for establishing therelative neighbourhood graph ofV. For every pointv _i ofV, first search for the octant neighbours ofv _i in each region, and then for each octant neighbourv _j found check whether the pointv _j is also a relative neighbour ofv _i. In theL _p metric, 1<p<∞, the total number of octant neighbours is shown to be θ(n) for any set ofn points; hence, even a straightforward implementation of the above method runs in θn ²) time. In theL ₁ andL _∞ metrics the method can be refined to a θ(n logn+m) algorithm, wherem is the number of relative neighbours in the output,n-1≤m≤n(n-1). TheL ₁ (L _∞) algorithm is optimal within a constant factor.     

Randomized quickhull

This paper contains a simple, randomized algorithm for constructing the convex hull of a set ofn points in the plane with expected running timeO(nlogh) whereh is the number of points on the convex hull. Supported in part by NSA Grant MDA904-93-H-3026 and by the NSF Regional Geometry Institute (Smith College, July 1993) Grant DMS-90 13220.     

Calculation of coordinates from molecular geometric parameters and the concept of a geometric calculator

Three different geometric parameters, distance r(i,j), angle θ(i,j, k), and dihedral (or torsion) angle φ(i,j, k, l), are commonly used to specify the shape of a molecule. Given Cartesian coordinates it is simple to calculate such parameters. The, non-trivial, inverse problem of finding coordinates when given such parameters is considered here. When a triple of such geometric parameters is given to specify the position of an atom, n, relative to reference atoms i,j, k,…, with known positions, five qualitatively different cases arise: r(n, i), θ(n, i,j), φ(n, i,j, k), θ(j, n, i) and φ(k, n, i,j). Each such geometric coordinate specifies n to lie on a certain type of surface. To calculate its position one must find the point of intersection of three such surfaces. A program, Evclid, that can perform these calculations is integrated with an interactive set of routines that constitute a geometric calculator and editor. It works on (three-dimensional) points and has a number of input, display and output options. It can translate, rotate, reflect, invert and scale as well as edit the point set or subsets.     

An improved version of the Cocke-Younger-Kasami algorithm

The Cocke-Younger-Kasami algorithm (CYK) always requires 0(n³) time and 0(n²) space to recognize a trial sentence ω = w₁w₂…w_n, given an e-free context-free grammar in Chomsky Normal form. The same inductive rule that underlies the CYK algorithm may be used to produce a variant that computes the same information but requires (1) a maximum of 0(n³) time and 0(n²) space, and (2) only 0(s(n)) space and time for an unambiguous grammar, where s(n) is the number of triples (A,i,j) for which a nonterminal symbol A derives w_iw_i+1…w_i+j?1. In this case, time and space consumed are at worst 0(n²).It is shown in addition, for any grammar, that a parse may be obtained from the table left from the recognition algorithm in time 0(s(n)) whether or not the grammar is ambiguous. The same procedure for the CYK algorithm requires time 0(n²).The performance of our variant is quite similar to that of the Earley algorithm except that the Earley algorithm substitutes for s(n), a function which is usually smaller.The model we use of a RAM is strictly identical to the model used in the CYK algorithm. CR categories: 4.20, 5.23, 5.25.     

Minimum Weight Convex Steiner Partitions

New tight bounds are presented on the minimum length of planar straight line graphs connecting n given points in the plane and having convex faces. Specifically, we show that the minimum length of a convex Steiner partition for n points in the plane is at most O(log n/log log n) times longer than a Euclidean minimum spanning tree (EMST), and this bound is the best possible. Without Steiner points, the corresponding bound is known to be Θ(log n), attained for n vertices of a pseudo-triangle. We also show that the minimum length convex Steiner partition of n points along a pseudo-triangle is at most O(log log n) times longer than an EMST, and this bound is also the best possible. Our methods are constructive and lead to O(nlog n) time algorithms for computing convex Steiner partitions having O(n) Steiner points and weight within the above worst-case bounds in both cases.     

Computing largest empty circles with location constraints

LetQ = {q₁, q₂,..., q_n} be a set ofn points on the plane. The largest empty circle (LEG) problem consists in finding the largest circleC with center in the convex hull ofQ such that no pointq _i εQ lies in the interior ofC. Shamos recently outlined anO(n logn) algorithm for solving this problem.⁽⁹⁾ In this paper it is shown that this algorithm does not always work correctly. A different approach is proposed here and shown to also result in anO(n logn) algorithm. The new approach has the advantage that it can also solve more general problems. In particular, it is shown that if the center ofC is constrained to lie in an arbitrary convexn-gon, an0(n logn) algorithm can still be obtained. Finally, an0(n logn +k logn) algorithm is given for solving this problem when the center ofC is constrained to lie in an arbitrary simplen-gonP. wherek denotes the number of intersections occurring between edges ofP and edges of the Voronoi diagram ofQ andk ?O(n ²).     

On a circle placement problem

We consider the following circle placement problem: given a set of pointsp _i ,i=1,2, ...,n, each of weightw _i , in the plane, and a fixed disk of radiusr, find a location to place the disk such that the total weight of the points covered by the disk is maximized. The problem is equivalent to the so-called maximum weighted clique problem for circle intersection graphs. That is, given a setS ofn circles,D _i ,i=1,2, ...,n, of the same radiusr, each of weightw _i , find a subset ofS whose common intersection is nonempty and whose total weight is maximum. AnO (n ²) algorithm is presented for the maximum clique problem. The algorithm is better than a previously known algorithm which is based on sorting and runs inO (n ² logn) time.     

Covering a set of points in a plane using two parallel rectangles

In this paper we consider the problem of finding two parallel rectangles in arbitrary orientation for covering a given set of n points in a plane, such that the area of the larger rectangle is minimized. We propose an algorithm that solves the problem in O(n³) time using O(n²) space. Without altering the complexity, our approach can be used to solve another optimization problem namely, minimize the sum of the areas of two arbitrarily oriented parallel rectangles covering a given set of points in a plane.