Voronoi Diagram: How to implement parabloas? - algorithm

I've been trying to implement a Voronoi Diagram using Fortunes Algorithm. I understand how it works but I'm stuck at how to store the parabolic arcs.
I understand all this is needed for the parabola is the sweeplines' Y position and the sites position but I'm I don't understand what to do with it.
I found this equation online (via this site):
What is X in this equation?

I'd say that y = ax2 + bx + c is the equation of a parabola with vertical axis. In this case, a,b,c are given in more detail. ly is a parameter which describes the current position of the sweep line and therefore influences the shape of the parabola. So your equation describes a whole family of parabolas, with pj,x and pj,y being the coordinates of the point you actually store in your data structure.

Related

Plotting a location into an irregular rectangle

I have 4 Point values: TopLeft, TopRight, BottomLeft, BottomRight. These define a 4 sided shape (like a distorted rectangle) on my monitor. These are the point a Tobii gaze device thinks I am looking at when in fact I am looking at the four corners of my monitor.
This picture shows a bitmap on the left representing my monitor, and the points the Tobii device tells me I am looking at when I am in fact looking at the corners of the screen. (It's a representation, not real).
I want to use those four calibration points to take a screen X,Y position that is from an inaccurate gaze position and correct it so that it is positioned as per the image on the right.
Edit: New solution for the edited question is at the end.
This problem is call bilinear interpolation.
Once you grasp the idea, it will be very easy and you would remember it for the rest of your life.
It would be quite long to post all detail here, but I will try.
First, I will name the point on the left to be (x,y) and the right to be (X,Y).
Let (x1,y1), (x1,y2), (x2,y1), (x2,y2) be the corner points on the left rectangle.
Secondly, let's split the problem into 2 bilinear interpolation problems:
want to find X
want to find Y
Let's find them one by one (X or Y).
Define : Qxx are the value of X or Y of the four corner in the right rectangle.
Suppose that we want to find the value of the unknown function f at
the point (x, y). It is assumed that we know the value of f at the
four points Q11 = (x1, y1), Q12 = (x1, y2), Q21 = (x2, y1), and Q22 =
(x2, y2).
The f(x,y) of your problem is X or Y in your question.
Then you interpolate f(x,y1) and f(x,y2) to be f(x,y) in the same way.
Finally, you will got X or Y=f(x,y)
Reference : All pictures/formulas/text here are copied from the wiki link (some with modification).
Edit: After the question has been edited, it become very different.
The new one is opposite, and it is called "inverse bilinear interpolation" which is far harder.
For more information, please read http://www.iquilezles.org/www/articles/ibilinear/ibilinear.htm
You can define a unique Linear Transform using 6 equations. The 3 points which have to align provide those 6 equations, as each pair of matching points provides two equations in x and y.
If you want to pursue this, I can provide the matrix equation which defines the Linear Transform based on how it maps three points. You invert this matrix and it will provide the linear transform.
But having done that, the transform is completely specified. You have no control over where the corner points of the original quadrilateral will go. In general, you can't even define a linear transform to map one quadrilateral onto another; this gives 8 equations (2 for each corner) with only 6 unknowns. Its over-specified. In fact a Linear Transform must always map a rectangle to a parallelogram, so in general you can't define a Linear Transform which maps one quadrilateral to another.
So if it can't be a Linear Transform, can it be a non-Linear Transform? Well, yes, but non-Linear Transforms don't necessarily map straight lines to straight lines, so the mapped edges of the quadrilateral won't be straight. Or any other lines. And you still have 14 equations (2 for each point and corner) for which you have to invent some non-Linear transform with 14 unknowns.
So the problem as stated cannot be solved with a Linear Transform; its over specified. Using a non-Linear transform will require you to devise a non-Linear transform which has 14 free variables (vs the 6 in a Linear Transform), this will map the 7 points correctly but straight lines will no longer be straight. Adding this requirement in adds an infinite number of constraints (one for every point in the line) and you won't even be able to use continuous functions.
There may be some solution to what you are doing in terms of what you are really trying to do (ie the underlying application need), but as a mathematical problem it is unsolvable.
Let me know if you want the matrix equation to produce a Linear Transform based on how it transforms 3 points.

Fortune's algorithm and circle as sweep line

I think it is possible to formulate Fortune's-like algorithm, but using circle instead of straight line as sweep line.
Say, "circle event" remains "circle event" and point event definition will slightly changed.
What also changed is binary tree implementation, but slightly. It became "binary tree mod 2 * pi" in some sense.
Parabolas from the original algorithm's wording are ellipses with one of two foci moved to infinity from their directrixes and so on similarly.
Are there any impediments for reformulation the algorithm definition in terms of circles and polar coordinates? Can it be generalized to higher dimensions?
N.B.: metric is sqrt(x * x + y * y).
ADDITIONAL:
I tried to infer equation for equidistant points from circle and the point that lies inside the circle. For point (a, 0) and circle center = (0, 0), radius = r the formula is rho = (r * r - a * a) / (2 * (r - a * cos(theta))). According to Wikipedia's article about ellipse the form of this inffered equation matches form of ellipse equation in polar coordinates relative to focus. Plot (slightly warped) visually demostrates correctness of this my conclusion:
For a == r (point lies on beach line) this ellipse becames (degenerates to) a line segment or, equally, radius, similar to corresponding ray from "point event" of original Fortune's algorithm wording.
There are two papers that I know of which describe a sweep circle approach to compute a Voronoi diagram in 2D. The second one "Parallel computing 2D VD..." also shows benchmarking results of their implementation. Unfortunately no link to a source code is provided, if you are looking for something like this.
A Sweepcircle Algorithm for Voronoi Diagrams
Parallel computing 2D Voronoi diagrams using untransformed sweepcircles

Parabola fitting with two given points and a cost function

Suppose that there is a parabola Y = aX^2 + bX + c, and it might be rotated as follow:
X = x.sin(phi) + y.cos(phi)
Y = x.cos(phi) - y.sin(phi)
phi = rotation angle
We wish to fit it on a border (e.g. inner border of an eyelid, figure below). The problem is that how we can change the parabola in each iteration such that it minimizes a cost function. We know that the parabola can be in different rotation and its origin may vary in the search region. Note that the there are two given points which the fitted parabola should passes through them (e.g. the white squares in fig below). So, In each iteration we can compute a, b and c by the two given points and the origin point (three equations and three variables).
The question is how we can reach the goal in minimum iteration (not to test all the possibilities, i.e. all angles and all positions in the search region).
Any idea will be appreciated.
#woodchips: I think this is a programming problem, and he asked a solution for the implementation.I definitely disagree with you.
A possible solution would be to first search along the vertical line which is orthogonal to the line between the two given points. And also you can vary the angle in this interval. As the nature of your problem (the border of eyelid), you can limit the angle variation between -pi/4 and pi/4. After you find the minimum cost for a position in this vertical line, you can search along the horizontal line and do similar tasks.
Why not use regression to fit a parabola to several points in the target shape? Then you could use which ever algorithm you wanted to get an approximate solution. Newton's method converges pretty fast. The optimization here is on the coefficients in the approximate parabolas.

Computing an angle from x,y coordinates [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Circle line collision detection
I'm trying to do collision testing between a finite line segment, and an arc segment. I have a collision test which does line segment vs. line segment, so I was going to approximate these arc segments with line segments and run my existing test.
The data I have defining the arc segment(s) are three points. Two of which are endpoints that lie on the circumference of a circle, and the third point is the center of that circle.
So far this is what I've got:
Let (a,b) be the center point of the circle, let 'r' be the radius of the circle, and (x1, y1), (x2, y2) be the endpoints of the arc segment which lies on the circumference of the circle.
The following parametric equations give the x, and y locations of an arc. 't' is the parametric variable.
x = a + r * cos(t)
y = b + r * sin(t)
To create the line segments from the arc, I wanted to walk the arc for some fixed ratio of 't' creating line segments along the way, until I've reached the end of the arc. To do this I figured I'd have to find the start and end angle. I'd start walking the arc from the start angle, and end at the end angle. Since I know the start and end points I figured I could use these equations to solve for these angles. The following are my equations for this:
t = arccos((x-a)/r)
or
t = acrcsin((y-b)/r)
The problem I'm having is that the range of values returned by these functions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse_trigonometric_function) is limited, so there is a high probability that the angle I'm looking for will not be returned because these functions are multivalued: arcsin(0) = 0, but also arcsin(0) = π, arcsin(0) = 2π, etc
How do I get the exact angle(s) I'm looking for? Or, can you think of a better/different way of achieving my goal?
Take a look at the atan2 function, which should exist in whatever programming language or math library you're using. It takes two arguments, the x and y coordinates of a point (for you: (x-a)/r and (y-b)/r) and returns the angle in the range -π to +π.
At least IMO, you're going at this the wrong way. A line has an equation y=mx+b. A circle has an equation x2 + y2 = r2. You're looking for a point at which the x and y of the circle equals the x and y of the line. You can do that by substituting the mx+b equation for the line for the y equation in the circle, and then solve using the quadratic equation.
The equations involved do get a bit long, but quite a few web pages (e.g., http://www.sonoma.edu/users/w/wilsonst/papers/geometry/circles/default.html) have them, at which point it's simple matter of implementing the equations as a couple of functions and plugging in the values for your particular circle/line. A solution based on these equations complete avoids the ambiguity from using an arg tangent.
Your pseudo-code looks a lot like Python. If you don't mind using Python I would recommend the Shapely Library. If you just want the algorithm, check the source.
Shapely objects have the 'simplify' and 'intersection' methods.

Is there any algorithm for determining 3d position in such case? (images below)

So first of all I have such image (and ofcourse I have all points coordinates in 2d so I can regenerate lines and check where they cross each other)
(source: narod.ru)
But hey, I have another Image of same lines (I know thay are same) and new coords of my points like on this image
(source: narod.ru)
So... now Having points (coords) on first image, How can I determin plane rotation and Z depth on second image (asuming first one's center was in point (0,0,0) with no rotation)?
What you're trying to find is called a projection matrix. Determining precise inverse projection usually requires that you have firmly established coordinates in both source and destination vectors, which the images above aren't going to give you. You can approximate using pixel positions, however.
This thread will give you a basic walkthrough of the techniques you need to use.
Let me say this up front: this problem is hard. There is a reason Dan Story's linked question has not been answered. Let provide an explanation for people who want to take a stab at it. I hope I'm wrong about how hard it is, though.
I will assume that the 2D screen coordinates and projection/perspective matrix is known to you. You need to know at least this much (if you don't know the projection matrix, essentially you are using a different camera to look at the world). Let's call each pair of 2D screen coordinates (a_i, b_i), and I will assume the projection matrix is of the form
P = [ px 0 0 0 ]
[ 0 py 0 0 ]
[ 0 0 pz pw]
[ 0 0 s 0 ], s = +/-1
Almost any reasonable projection has this form. Working through the rendering pipeline, you find that
a_i = px x_i / (s z_i)
b_i = py y_i / (s z_i)
where (x_i, y_i, z_i) are the original 3D coordinates of the point.
Now, let's assume you know your shape in a set of canonical coordinates (whatever you want), so that the vertices is (x0_i, y0_i, z0_i). We can arrange these as columns of a matrix C. The actual coordinates of the shape are a rigid transformation of these coordinates. Let's similarly organize the actual coordinates as columns of a matrix V. Then these are related by
V = R C + v 1^T (*)
where 1^T is a row vector of ones with the right length, R is an orthogonal rotation matrix of the rigid transformation, and v is the offset vector of the transformation.
Now, you have an expression for each column of V from above: the first column is { s a_1 z_1 / px, s b_1 z_1 / py, z_1 } and so on.
You must solve the set of equations (*) for the set of scalars z_i, and the rigid transformation defined R and v.
Difficulties
The equation is nonlinear in the unknowns, involving quotients of R and z_i
We have assumed up to now that you know which 2D coordinates correspond to which vertices of the original shape (if your shape is a square, this is slightly less of a problem).
We assume there is even a solution at all; if there are errors in the 2D data, then it's hard to say how well equation (*) will be satisfied; the transformation will be nonrigid or nonlinear.
It's called (digital) photogrammetry. Start Googling.
If you are really interested in this kind of problems (which are common in computer vision, tracking objects with cameras etc.), the following book contains a detailed treatment:
Ma, Soatto, Kosecka, Sastry, An Invitation to 3-D Vision, Springer 2004.
Beware: this is an advanced engineering text, and uses many techniques which are mathematical in nature. Skim through the sample chapters featured on the book's web page to get an idea.

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