_Point location problem The point location problem is a fundamental topic of computational geometry. It finds applications in areas that deal with processing geometrical data: computer graphics, geographic information systems (GIS), motion planning, and computer aided design (CAD). In its most general form, the problem is, given a partition of the space into disjoint regions, to determine the region where a query point lies. For example, the problem of determining which window of a graphical user interface contains a given mouse click can be formulated as an instance of point location, with a subdivision formed by the visible parts of each window, although specialized data structures may be more appropriate than general-purpose point location data structures in this application. Another special case is the point in polygon problem, in which one needs to determine whether a point is inside, outside, or on the boundary of a single polygon. In many applications, one needs to determine the location of several different points with respect to the same partition of the space. To solve this problem efficiently, it is useful to build a data structure that, given a query point, quickly determines which region contains the query point (e.g. Voronoi Diagram). In the planar case, we are given a planar subdivision S, formed by multiple polygons called faces, and need to determine which face contains a query point. A brute force search of each face using the point-in-polygon algorithm is possible, but usually not feasible for subdivisions of high complexity. Several different approaches lead to optimal data structures, with O(n) storage space and O(log n) query time, where n is the total number of vertices in S. For simplicity, we assume that the planar subdivision is contained inside a square bounding box. The simplest and earliest data structure to achieve O(log n) time was discovered by Dobkin and Lipton in 1976. It is based on subdividing S using vertical lines that pass through each vertex in S.

About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.