Motivated by indoor localization by tripwire lasers, we study the problem of cutting a polygon into small-size pieces, using the chords of the polygon. Sever
We study Snipperclips, a computer puzzle game whose objective is to create a target shape with two tools. The tools start as constant-complexity shapes, and each tool can snip (i.e., subtract its current shape from) the other tool. We study the computational problem of, given a target shape represented by a polygonal domain of $n$ vertices, is it possible to create it as one of the tools shape via a sequence of snip operations? If so, how many snip operations are required? We consider several variants of the problem (such as allowing the tools to be disconnected and/or using an undo operation) and bound the number of operations needed for each of the variants.
Given a convex polyhedron $P$ of $n$ vertices inside a sphere $Q$, we give an $O(n^3)$-time algorithm that cuts $P$ out of $Q$ by using guillotine cuts and has cutting cost $O((log n)^2)$ times the optimal.
We consider the construction of a polygon $P$ with $n$ vertices whose turning angles at the vertices are given by a sequence $A=(alpha_0,ldots, alpha_{n-1})$, $alpha_iin (-pi,pi)$, for $iin{0,ldots, n-1}$. The problem of realizing $A$ by a polygon can be seen as that of constructing a straight-line drawing of a graph with prescribed angles at vertices, and hence, it is a special case of the well studied problem of constructing an emph{angle graph}. In 2D, we characterize sequences $A$ for which every generic polygon $Psubset mathbb{R}^2$ realizing $A$ has at least $c$ crossings, for every $cin mathbb{N}$, and describe an efficient algorithm that constructs, for a given sequence $A$, a generic polygon $Psubset mathbb{R}^2$ that realizes $A$ with the minimum number of crossings. In 3D, we describe an efficient algorithm that tests whether a given sequence $A$ can be realized by a (not necessarily generic) polygon $Psubset mathbb{R}^3$, and for every realizable sequence the algorithm finds a realization.
We study several problems concerning convex polygons whose vertices lie in a Cartesian product (for short, grid) of two sets of n real numbers. First, we prove that every such grid contains a convex polygon with $Omega$(log n) vertices and that this bound is tight up to a constant factor. We generalize this result to d dimensions (for a fixed d $in$ N), and obtain a tight lower bound of $Omega$(log d--1 n) for the maximum number of points in convex position in a d-dimensional grid. Second, we present polynomial-time algorithms for computing the largest convex chain in a grid that contains no two points of the same x-or y-coordinate. We show how to efficiently approximate the maximum size of a supported convex polygon up to a factor of 2. Finally, we present exponential bounds on the maximum number of convex polygons in these grids, and for some restricted variants. These bounds are tight up to polynomial factors.
Given a colored point set in the plane, a perfect rainbow polygon is a simple polygon that contains exactly one point of each color, either in its interior or on its boundary. Let $operatorname{rb-index}(S)$ denote the smallest size of a perfect rainbow polygon for a colored point set $S$, and let $operatorname{rb-index}(k)$ be the maximum of $operatorname{rb-index}(S)$ over all $k$-colored point sets in general position; that is, every $k$-colored point set $S$ has a perfect rainbow polygon with at most $operatorname{rb-index}(k)$ vertices. In this paper, we determine the values of $operatorname{rb-index}(k)$ up to $k=7$, which is the first case where $operatorname{rb-index}(k) eq k$, and we prove that for $kge 5$, [ frac{40lfloor (k-1)/2 rfloor -8}{19} %Birgit: leqoperatorname{rb-index}(k)leq 10 bigglfloorfrac{k}{7}biggrfloor + 11. ] Furthermore, for a $k$-colored set of $n$ points in the plane in general position, a perfect rainbow polygon with at most $10 lfloorfrac{k}{7}rfloor + 11$ vertices can be computed in $O(nlog n)$ time.