This paper describes a new algorithm for constructing the set of free bitangents of a collection of n disjoint convex obstacles of constant complexity. The algorithm runs in time O(n log n + k), where k is the output size, and uses O(n) space. While earlier algorithms achieve the same optimal running time, this is the first optimal algorithm that uses only linear space. The visibility graph or the visibility complex can be computed in the same time and space. The only complicated data structure used by the algorithm is a splittable queue, which can be implemented easily using red--black trees. The algorithm is conceptually very simple, and should therefore be easy to implement and quite fast in practice. The algorithm relies on greedy pseudotriangulations, which are subgraphs of the visibility graph with many nice combinatorial properties. These properties, and thus the correctness of the algorithm, are partially derived from properties of a certain partial order on the faces of th...

We show that the k free bitangents of a collection of n pairwise disjoint convex plane sets can be computed in time O(k+n log n) and O(n) working space. The algorithm uses only one advanced data structure, namely a splittable queue. We introduce (weakly) greedy pseudo--triangulations, whose combinatorial properties are crucial for our method. 1 Introduction Consider a collection O of pairwise disjoint convex objects in the plane. We are interested in problems in which these objects arise as obstacles, either in connection with visibility problems where they can block the view from an other geometric object, or in motion planning, where these objects may prevent a moving object from moving along a straight line path. The visibility graph is a central object in such contexts. For polygonal obstacles the vertices of these polygons are the nodes of the visibility graph, and two nodes are connected by an arc if the corresponding vertices can see each other. [9] describes the first non-triv...

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This note corrects a mistake in the earlier paper with the same title, and gives an example to illustrate the modified theory.