Drawing graphs is an important problem that combines flavors of computational geometry and graph theory. Applications can be found in a variety of areas including circuit layout, network management, software engineering, and graphics. The main contributions of this paper can be summarized as follows: ffl We devise a model for dynamic graph algorithms, based on performing queries and updates on an implicit representation of the drawing, and we show its applications. ffl We present several efficient dynamic drawing algorithms for trees, series-parallel digraphs, planar st-digraphs, and planar graphs. These algorithms adopt a variety of representations (e.g., straight-line, polyline, visibility), and update the drawing in a smooth way.

We show how to construct an O( p n)-separator decomposition of a planar graph G in O(n) time. Such a decomposition defines a binary tree where each node corresponds to a subgraph of G and stores an O( p n)-separator of that subgraph. We also show how to construct an O(n ffl )-way decomposition tree in parallel in O(log n) time so that each node corresponds to a subgraph of G and stores an O(n 1=2+ffl )-separator of that subgraph. We demonstrate the utility of such a separator decomposition by showing how it can be used in the design of a parallel algorithm for triangulating a simple polygon deterministically in O(log n) time using O(n= log n) processors on a CRCW PRAM. Keywords: Computational geometry, algorithmic graph theory, planar graphs, planar separators, polygon triangulation, parallel algorithms, PRAM model. 1 Introduction Let G = (V; E) be an n-node graph. An f(n)-separator is an f(n)-sized subset of V whose removal disconnects G into two subgraphs G 1 and G 2 each...

We give new methods for maintaining a data structure that supports ray shooting and shortest path queries in a dynamically-changing connected planar subdivision S. Our approach is based on a new dynamic method for maintaining a balanced decomposition of a simple polygon via geodesic triangles. We maintain such triangulations by viewing their dual trees as balanced trees. We show that rotations in these trees can be implemented via a simple "diagonal swapping" operation performed on the corresponding geodesic triangles, and that edge insertion and deletion can be implemented on these trees using operations akin to the standard split and splice operations. We also maintain a dynamic point location structure on the geodesic triangulation, so that we may implement ray shooting queries by first locating the ray's endpoint and then walking along the ray from geodesic triangle to geodesic triangle until we hit the boundary of some region of S. The shortest path between two points in the same ...

A visibility ordering of a set of objects, from a given viewpoint, is a total order on the objects such that if object a obstructs object b,thenb precedes a in the ordering. Such orderings are extremely useful for rendering volumetric data. We present an algorithm that generates a visibility ordering of the cells of an unstructured mesh, provided that the cells are convex polyhedra and nonintersecting, and that the visibility ordering graph does not contain cycles. The overall mesh may be nonconvex and it may have disconnected components. Our technique employs the sweep paradigm to determine an ordering between pairs of exterior (mesh boundary) cells which can obstruct one another. It then builds on Williams' MPVO algorithm [33] which exploits the ordering implied by adjacencies within the mesh. The partial ordering of the exterior cells found by sweeping is used to augment the DAG created in Phase II of the MPVO algorithm. Our method thus removes the assumption of the MPVO algorithm t...

In this paper, we give an algorithm for output-sensitive construction of an f-face convex hull of a set of n points in general position in E 4 . Our algorithm runs in O((n + f)log 2 f) time and uses O(n + f) space. This is the first algorithm within a polylogarithmic factor of optimal O(n log f + f) time over the whole range of f . By a standard lifting map, we obtain outputsensitive algorithms for the Voronoi diagram or Delaunay triangulation in E 3 and for the portion of a Voronoi diagram that is clipped to a convex polytope. Our approach simplifies the "ultimate convex hull algorithm" of Kirkpatrick and Seidel in E 2 and also leads to improved output-sensitive results on constructing convex hulls in E d for any even constant d ? 4. 1 Introduction Geometric structures induced by n points in Euclidean d-dimensional space, such as the convex hull, Voronoi diagram, or Delaunay triangulation, can be of larger size than the point set that defines them. In many practical situat...

Shortest path problems are among the... In this paper we propose several simple and practical algorithms (schemes) to compute an approximated weighted shortest path Π'(s, t) points s and t on the surface of a polyhedron P.

Abstract. We present efficient algorithms for solving polygonal-path approximation problems in three and higher dimensions. Given an n-vertex polygonal curve P in R d, d ≥ 3, we approximate P by another polygonal curve P ′ of m ≤ n vertices in R d such that the vertex sequence of P ′ is an ordered subsequence of the vertices of P. The goal is either to minimize the size m of P ′ for a given error tolerance ε (called the min- # problem), or to minimize the deviation error ε between P and P ′ for a given size m of P ′ (called the min-ε problem). Our techniques enable us to develop efficient near-quadratic-time algorithms in three dimensions and subcubic-time algorithms in four dimensions for solving the min- # and min-ε problems. We discuss extensions of our solutions to d-dimensional space, where d> 4, and for the L1 and L∞ metrics. Key Words. Curve approximation, Parametric searching. 1. Introduction. In

We apply van Emde Boas-type stratified trees to point location problems in rectangular subdivisions in 2 and 3 dimensions. In a subdivision with n rectangles having integer coordinates from [0; U \Gamma 1], we locate an integer query point in O((log log U ) d ) query time using O(n) space when d 2 or O(n log log U ) space when d = 3. Applications and extensions of this "fixed universe" approach include spatial point location using logarithmic time and linear space in rectilinear subdivisions having arbitrary coordinates, point location in c-oriented polygons or fat triangles in the plane, point location in subdivisions of space into "fat prisms," and vertical ray shooting among horizontal "fat objects." Like other results on stratified trees, our algorithms run on a RAM model and make use of perfect hashing. 1 Introduction The point location problem---which seeks to preprocess a set of disjoint geometric objects to be able to determine quickly which object contains a query point--...

Many of the computational geometers' favorite data structures are planar graphs, canonically determined by a set of geometric data, that take \Theta(n log n) time to compute. Examples include 2-d Delaunay triangulation, trapezoidations of segments, and constrained Voronoi diagrams, and 3-d convex hulls. Given such a structure, one can determine a permutation of the data in O(n) time such that the data structure can be reconstructed from the permuted data in O(n) time by a simple incremental algorithm. As a consequence, one can permute a data file to "hide" a geometric structure, such as a terrian model based on the Delaunay triangulation of a set of sampled points, without disrupting other applications. One can even include "importance" in the ordering so the incremental reconstruction produces approximate terrain models as the data is read or received. For the Delaunay triangulation, we can also handle input in degenerate position, even though the data structures may no longer be cano...

Given a collection S of n line segments in the plane, the planar point location problem is to construct a data structure that can efficiently determine for a given query point p the first segment(s) in S intersected by vertical rays emanating out from p. It is well known that linear-space data structures can be constructed so as to achieve O(log n) query times. But applications, such as those common in geographic information systems, motivate a re-examination of this problem with the goal of improving query times further while also simplifying the methods needed to achieve such query times. In this paper we perform such a re-examination, focusing on the issues that arise in three different classes of pointlocation query sequences: ffl sequences that are reasonably uniform spatially and temporally (in which case the constant factors in the query times become critical), ffl sequences that are non-uniform spatially or temporally (in which case one desires data structures that adapt to s...