Uniformly distributed random point inside a frustum - random

I have a 3D scene and I want "litter" it with X number of objects placed randomly within the viewing frustum.
I tried using 3 randoms: X + Y (viewport 0..1), and then Z distance from camera and then projecting using the camera distance. However this doesn't yield a uniform distribution and there are too many objects close to the camera and too few further away.
There is the option of generating a random point within the cube and filtering those points that are outside the view frustum, but I'm generating a shitload of these and I'm worried about performance.
How can I generate a random point inside a frustum in a uniformly distributed manner?

This is just nicely formatted code from the final solution in the link in Amir Abiri's answer, since the code in the link has abysmal formatting quality.
In java, since that's what I'm using it in, and with some variable name changes (also, tests passed; it works nicely)
Note that this can be made nicer in several ways depending on the application (eg. as was mentioned in the linked site from Amir Abiri's answer, some variables could be calculated once and used multiple times so long as the same frustum is being used)
public static final double ONE_THIRD = 1d / 3, EPSILON = 0.0000001;
public static double getUniformRandZInFrustum(Random random, double nearW, double nearH, double farW, double farH, double depth)
{
double a = (farW - nearW) * (farH - nearH) / (depth * depth);
double b = (nearH * (farW - nearW) + nearW * (farH - nearH)) / depth;
if (Math.abs(a) < EPSILON)
{
if (Math.abs(b) < EPSILON)
{
//Rectangular prism
return (random.nextDouble(depth));
}
//Trapezoidal prism
double c = nearW * nearH;
double area = depth * (c + depth * 0.5 * b);
double r = random.nextDouble(area);
return (-c + Math.sqrt(c * c + 2 * b * r)) / b;
}
//General case
double c = nearW * nearH;
double area = depth * (c + depth * (0.5 * b + depth * ONE_THIRD * a));
double r = random.nextDouble(area);
double det = b * b - 4 * a * c;
double part1 = b * (b * b - 6 * a * c) - 12 * a * a * r;
double part2 = Math.sqrt(part1 * part1 - det * det * det);
if (part1 < 0.0) part2 = -part2;
double part3 = part1 + part2;
if (part3 < 0.0) part3 = -Math.pow(-part3, ONE_THIRD);
else part3 = Math.pow(part3, ONE_THIRD);
return -(b + det / part3 + part3) / (2 * a);
}

Distribute the points in NDC space and back project them with an inverse frustum transformation and w-divide into view space.

I found the solution on gamedev.net in an old forum post:
http://www.gamedev.net/topic/254550-geometryrandomnessuniform-filling/page_p_2539021_hl_+random%20+frustum#entry2539021

Related

Need explanation of ecef to enu algorithm

I found some useful coordinate conversion code at https://gist.github.com/govert/1b373696c9a27ff4c72a
However, there is a bit specifically in the EcefToEnu function that I'm not clear on
// Converts the Earth-Centered Earth-Fixed (ECEF) coordinates (x, y, z) to
// East-North-Up coordinates in a Local Tangent Plane that is centered at the
// (WGS-84) Geodetic point (lat0, lon0, h0).
public static void EcefToEnu(double x, double y, double z,
double lat0, double lon0, double h0,
out double xEast, out double yNorth, out double zUp)
{
// Convert to radians in notation consistent with the paper:
var lambda = DegreesToRadians(lat0);
var phi = DegreesToRadians(lon0);
var s = Sin(lambda);
var N = a / Sqrt(1 - e_sq * s * s);
var sin_lambda = Sin(lambda);
var cos_lambda = Cos(lambda);
var cos_phi = Cos(phi);
var sin_phi = Sin(phi);
double x0 = (h0 + N) * cos_lambda * cos_phi;
double y0 = (h0 + N) * cos_lambda * sin_phi;
double z0 = (h0 + (1 - e_sq) * N) * sin_lambda;
double xd, yd, zd;
xd = x - x0;
yd = y - y0;
zd = z - z0;
// This is the matrix multiplication
xEast = -sin_phi * xd + cos_phi * yd;
yNorth = -cos_phi * sin_lambda * xd - sin_lambda * sin_phi * yd + cos_lambda * zd;
zUp = cos_lambda * cos_phi * xd + cos_lambda * sin_phi * yd + sin_lambda * zd;
}
I get the inputs, the first 4 conversion lines, the 4 sin and cos lines and I get the matrix multiplication - there are numerous examples with that in the algorithm. But what I'm not clear on is the part
double x0 = (h0 + N) * cos_lambda * cos_phi;
double y0 = (h0 + N) * cos_lambda * sin_phi;
double z0 = (h0 + (1 - e_sq) * N) * sin_lambda;
double xd, yd, zd;
xd = x - x0;
yd = y - y0;
zd = z - z0;
I don't recognize this section from any of the algorithms I've seen. It appears to be some sort of offset, but aside from that, I'm unclear where the formulas came from or what exactly this code is doing. Can someone please enlighten me as to what this bit of code is doing? I just want to understand what I'm looking at.
They are the conversion from geodetic coordinates (lat,long,height) aka (phi,lambda,h0) to ecef cartesians (x0,y0,z0) and then the computation of the ecef vector from (x0,y0,n0) to (x,y,z).
For the first part, note that if the ellipsoid were a sphere (e==0) then the first part would be the conversion from spherical polars to cartesians

HCL color to RGB and backward

I need an algorithm to convert the HCL color to RGB and backward RGB to HCL keeping in mind that these color spaces have different gamuts (I need to constrain the HCL colors to those that can be reproduced in RGB color space). What is the algorithm for this (the algorithm is intended to be implemented in Wolfram Mathematica that supports natively only RGB color)? I have no experience in working with color spaces.
P.S. Some articles about HCL color:
M. Sarifuddin (2005). A new perceptually uniform color space with associated color similarity measure for content–based image and video retrieval.
Zeileis, Hornik and Murrell (2009): Escaping RGBland: Selecting Colors for Statistical Graphics // Computational Statistics & Data Analysis Volume 53, Issue 9, 1 July 2009, Pages 3259-3270
UPDATE:
As pointed out by Jonathan Jansson, in the above two articles different color spaces are described by the name "HCL": "The second article uses LCh(uv) which is the same as Luv* but described in polar coordiates where h(uv) is the angle of the u* and v* coordinate and C* is the magnitude of that vector". So in fact I need an algorithm for converting RGB to Luv* and backward.
I was just learing about the HCL colorspace too. The colorspace used in the two articles in your question seems to be different color spaces though.
The second article uses L*C*h(uv) which is the same as L*u*v* but described in polar coordiates where h(uv) is the angle of the u* and v* coordiate and C* is the magnitude of that vector.
The LCH color space in the first article seems to describe another color space than that uses a more algorithmical conversion. There is also another version of the first paper here: http://isjd.pdii.lipi.go.id/admin/jurnal/14209102121.pdf
If you meant to use the CIE L*u*v* you need to first convert sRGB to CIE XYZ and then convert to CIE L*u*v*. RGB actually refers to sRGB in most cases so there is no need to convert from RGB to sRGB.
All source code needed
Good article about how conversion to XYZ works
Nice online converter
But I can't answer your question about how to constrain the colors to the sRGB space. You could just throw away RGB colors which are outside the range 0 to 1 after conversion. Just clamping colors can give quite weird results. Try to go to the converter and enter the color RGB 0 0 255 and convert to L*a*b* (similar to L*u*v*) and then increase L* to say 70 and convert it back and the result is certainly not blue anymore.
Edit: Corrected the URL
Edit: Merged another answer into this answer
HCL is a very generic name there are a lot of ways to have a hue, a chroma, and a lightness. Chroma.js for example has something it calls HCL which is polar coord converted Lab (when you look at the actual code). Other implementations, even ones linked from that same site use Polar Luv. Since you can simply borrow the L factor and derive the hue by converting to polar coords these are both valid ways to get those three elements. It is far better to call them Polar Lab and Polar Luv, because of the confusion factor.
M. Sarifuddin (2005)'s algorithm is not Polar Luv or Polar Lab and is computationally simpler (you don't need to derive Lab or Luv space first), and may actually be better. There are some things that seem wrong in the paper. For example applying a Euclidean distance to a CIE L*C*H* colorspace. The use of a Hue means it's necessarily round, and just jamming that number into A²+B²+C² is going to give you issues. The same is true to apply a hue-based colorspace to D94 or D00 as these are distance algorithms with built in corrections specific to Lab colorspace. Unless I'm missing something there, I'd disregard figures 6-8. And I question the rejection tolerances in the graphics. You could set a lower threshold and do better, and the numbers between color spaces are not normalized. In any event, despite a few seeming flaws in the paper, the algorithm described is worth a shot. You might want to do Euclidean on RGB if it doesn't really matter much. But, if you're shopping around for color distance algorithms, here you go.
Here is HCL as given by M. Sarifuddin implemented in Java. Having read the paper repeatedly I cannot avoid the conclusion that it scales the distance by a factor of between 0.16 and 180.16 with regard to the change in hue in the distance_hcl routine. This is such a profound factor that it almost cannot be right at all. And makes the color matching suck. I have the paper's line commented out and use a line with only the Al factor. Scaling Luminescence by constant ~1.4 factor isn't going to make it unusable. With neither scale factor it ends up being identical to cycldistance.
http://w3.uqo.ca/missaoui/Publications/TRColorSpace.zip is corrected and improved version of the paper.
static final public double Y0 = 100;
static final public double gamma = 3;
static final public double Al = 1.4456;
static final public double Ach_inc = 0.16;
public void rgb2hcl(double[] returnarray, int r, int g, int b) {
double min = Math.min(Math.min(r, g), b);
double max = Math.max(Math.max(r, g), b);
if (max == 0) {
returnarray[0] = 0;
returnarray[1] = 0;
returnarray[2] = 0;
return;
}
double alpha = (min / max) / Y0;
double Q = Math.exp(alpha * gamma);
double rg = r - g;
double gb = g - b;
double br = b - r;
double L = ((Q * max) + ((1 - Q) * min)) / 2;
double C = Q * (Math.abs(rg) + Math.abs(gb) + Math.abs(br)) / 3;
double H = Math.toDegrees(Math.atan2(gb, rg));
/*
//the formulae given in paper, don't work.
if (rg >= 0 && gb >= 0) {
H = 2 * H / 3;
} else if (rg >= 0 && gb < 0) {
H = 4 * H / 3;
} else if (rg < 0 && gb >= 0) {
H = 180 + 4 * H / 3;
} else if (rg < 0 && gb < 0) {
H = 2 * H / 3 - 180;
} // 180 causes the parts to overlap (green == red) and it oddly crumples up bits of the hue for no good reason. 2/3H and 4/3H expanding and contracting quandrants.
*/
if (rg < 0) {
if (gb >= 0) H = 90 + H;
else { H = H - 90; }
} //works
returnarray[0] = H;
returnarray[1] = C;
returnarray[2] = L;
}
public double cycldistance(double[] hcl1, double[] hcl2) {
double dL = hcl1[2] - hcl2[2];
double dH = Math.abs(hcl1[0] - hcl2[0]);
double C1 = hcl1[1];
double C2 = hcl2[1];
return Math.sqrt(dL*dL + C1*C1 + C2*C2 - 2*C1*C2*Math.cos(Math.toRadians(dH)));
}
public double distance_hcl(double[] hcl1, double[] hcl2) {
double c1 = hcl1[1];
double c2 = hcl2[1];
double Dh = Math.abs(hcl1[0] - hcl2[0]);
if (Dh > 180) Dh = 360 - Dh;
double Ach = Dh + Ach_inc;
double AlDl = Al * Math.abs(hcl1[2] - hcl2[2]);
return Math.sqrt(AlDl * AlDl + (c1 * c1 + c2 * c2 - 2 * c1 * c2 * Math.cos(Math.toRadians(Dh))));
//return Math.sqrt(AlDl * AlDl + Ach * (c1 * c1 + c2 * c2 - 2 * c1 * c2 * Math.cos(Math.toRadians(Dh))));
}
I'm familiar with quite a few color spaces, but this one is new to me. Alas, Mathematica's ColorConvert doesn't know it either.
I found an rgb2hcl routine here, but no routine going the other way.
A more comprehensive colorspace conversion package can be found here. It seems to be able to do conversions to and from all kinds of color spaces. Look for the file colorspace.c in colorspace_1.1-0.tar.gz\colorspace_1.1-0.tar\colorspace\src. Note that HCL is known as PolarLUV in this package.
As mentioned in other answers, there are a lot of ways to implement an HCL colorspace and map that into RGB.
HSLuv ended up being what I used, and has MIT-licensed implementations in C, C#, Go, Java, PHP, and several other languages. It's similar to CIELUV LCh but fully maps to RGB. The implementations are available on GitHub.
Here's a short graphic from the website describing the HSLuv color space, with the implementation output in the right two panels:
I was looking to interpolate colors on the web and found HCL to be the most fitting color space, I couldn't find any library making the conversion straightforward and performant so I wrote my own.
There's many constants at play, and some of them vary significantly depending on where you source them from.
My target being the web, I figured I'd be better off matching the chromium source code. Here's a minimized snippet written in Typescript, the sRGB XYZ matrix is precomputed and all constants are inlined.
const rgb255 = (v: number) => (v < 255 ? (v > 0 ? v : 0) : 255);
const b1 = (v: number) => (v > 0.0031308 ? v ** (1 / 2.4) * 269.025 - 14.025 : v * 3294.6);
const b2 = (v: number) => (v > 0.2068965 ? v ** 3 : (v - 4 / 29) * (108 / 841));
const a1 = (v: number) => (v > 10.314724 ? ((v + 14.025) / 269.025) ** 2.4 : v / 3294.6);
const a2 = (v: number) => (v > 0.0088564 ? v ** (1 / 3) : v / (108 / 841) + 4 / 29);
function fromHCL(h: number, c: number, l: number): RGB {
const y = b2((l = (l + 16) / 116));
const x = b2(l + (c / 500) * Math.cos((h *= Math.PI / 180)));
const z = b2(l - (c / 200) * Math.sin(h));
return [
rgb255(b1(x * 3.021973625 - y * 1.617392459 - z * 0.404875592)),
rgb255(b1(x * -0.943766287 + y * 1.916279586 + z * 0.027607165)),
rgb255(b1(x * 0.069407491 - y * 0.22898585 + z * 1.159737864)),
];
}
function toHCL(r: number, g: number, b: number) {
const y = a2((r = a1(r)) * 0.222488403 + (g = a1(g)) * 0.716873169 + (b = a1(b)) * 0.06060791);
const l = 500 * (a2(r * 0.452247074 + g * 0.399439023 + b * 0.148375274) - y);
const q = 200 * (y - a2(r * 0.016863605 + g * 0.117638439 + b * 0.865350722));
const h = Math.atan2(q, l) * (180 / Math.PI);
return [h < 0 ? h + 360 : h, Math.sqrt(l * l + q * q), 116 * y - 16];
}
Here's a playground for the above snippet.
It includes d3's interpolateHCL and the browser native css transition for comparaison.
https://svelte.dev/repl/0a40a8348f8841d0b7007c58e4d9b54c
Here's a gist to do the conversion to and from any web color format and interpolate it in the HCL color space.
https://gist.github.com/pushkine/c8ba98294233d32ab71b7e19a0ebdbb9
I think
if (rg < 0) {
if (gb >= 0) H = 90 + H;
else { H = H - 90; }
} //works
is not really necessary because of atan2(,) instead of atan(/) from paper (but dont now anything about java atan2(,) especially

interpolate between rotation matrices

i have two rotation matrices that describe arbitrary rotations. (4x4 opengl compatible)
now i want to interpolate between them, so that it follows a radial path from one rotation to the other. think of a camera on a tripod looking one way and then rotating.
if i interpolate every component i get a squeezing result, so i think i need to interpolate only certain components of the matrix. but which ones?
You have to use SLERP for the rotational parts of the matrices, and linear for the other parts. The best way is to turn your matrices into quaternions and use the (simpler) quaternion SLERP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slerp.
I suggest reading Graphic Gems II or III,specifically the sections about decomposing matrices into simpler transformations. Here's Spencer W. Thomas' source for this chapter:
http://tog.acm.org/resources/GraphicsGems/gemsii/unmatrix.c
Of course, I suggest you learn how to do this yourself. It's really not that hard, just a lot of annoying algebra. And finally, here's a great paper on how to turn a matrix into a quaternion, and back, by Id software: http://www.mrelusive.com/publications/papers/SIMD-From-Quaternion-to-Matrix-and-Back.pdf
Edit: This is the formula pretty much everyone cites, it's from a 1985 SIGGRAPH paper.
Where:
- qm = interpolated quaternion
- qa = quaternion a (first quaternion to be interpolated between)
- qb = quaternion b (second quaternion to be interpolated between)
- t = a scalar between 0.0 (at qa) and 1.0 (at qb)
- θ is half the angle between qa and qb
Code:
quat slerp(quat qa, quat qb, double t) {
// quaternion to return
quat qm = new quat();
// Calculate angle between them.
double cosHalfTheta = qa.w * qb.w + qa.x * qb.x + qa.y * qb.y + qa.z * qb.z;
// if qa=qb or qa=-qb then theta = 0 and we can return qa
if (abs(cosHalfTheta) >= 1.0){
qm.w = qa.w;qm.x = qa.x;qm.y = qa.y;qm.z = qa.z;
return qm;
}
// Calculate temporary values.
double halfTheta = acos(cosHalfTheta);
double sinHalfTheta = sqrt(1.0 - cosHalfTheta*cosHalfTheta);
// if theta = 180 degrees then result is not fully defined
// we could rotate around any axis normal to qa or qb
if (fabs(sinHalfTheta) < 0.001){ // fabs is floating point absolute
qm.w = (qa.w * 0.5 + qb.w * 0.5);
qm.x = (qa.x * 0.5 + qb.x * 0.5);
qm.y = (qa.y * 0.5 + qb.y * 0.5);
qm.z = (qa.z * 0.5 + qb.z * 0.5);
return qm;
}
double ratioA = sin((1 - t) * halfTheta) / sinHalfTheta;
double ratioB = sin(t * halfTheta) / sinHalfTheta;
//calculate Quaternion.
qm.w = (qa.w * ratioA + qb.w * ratioB);
qm.x = (qa.x * ratioA + qb.x * ratioB);
qm.y = (qa.y * ratioA + qb.y * ratioB);
qm.z = (qa.z * ratioA + qb.z * ratioB);
return qm;
}
From: http://www.euclideanspace.com/maths/algebra/realNormedAlgebra/quaternions/slerp/
You need to convert the matrix into a different representation - quaternions work well for this, and interpolating quaternions is a well-defined operation.

How to find distance from the latitude and longitude of two locations?

I have a set of latitudes and longitudes of locations.
How to find distance from one location in the set to another?
Is there a formula ?
The Haversine formula assumes a spherical earth. However, the shape of the earh is more complex. An oblate spheroid model will give better results.
If such accuracy is needed, you should better use Vincenty inverse formula.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenty's_formulae for details. Using it, you can get a 0.5mm accuracy for the spheroid model.
There is no perfect formula, since the real shape of the earth is too complex to be expressed by a formula. Moreover, the shape of earth changes due to climate events (see http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/earthandsun/earthshape.html), and also changes over time due to the rotation of the earth.
You should also note that the method above does not take altitudes into account, and assumes a sea-level oblate spheroid.
Edit 10-Jul-2010: I found out that there are rare situations for which Vincenty inverse formula does not converge to the declared accuracy. A better idea is to use GeographicLib (see http://sourceforge.net/projects/geographiclib/) which is also more accurate.
Here's one: http://www.movable-type.co.uk/scripts/latlong.html
Using Haversine formula:
R = earth’s radius (mean radius = 6,371km)
Δlat = lat2− lat1
Δlong = long2− long1
a = sin²(Δlat/2) + cos(lat1).cos(lat2).sin²(Δlong/2)
c = 2.atan2(√a, √(1−a))
d = R.c
Apply the Haversine formula to find the distance. See the C# code below to find the distance between 2 coordinates. Better still if you want to say find a list of stores within a certain radius, you could apply a WHERE clause in SQL or a LINQ filter in C# to it.
The formula here is in kilometres, you will have to change the relevant numbers and it will work for miles.
E.g: Convert 6371.392896 to miles.
DECLARE #radiusInKm AS FLOAT
DECLARE #lat2Compare AS FLOAT
DECLARE #long2Compare AS FLOAT
SET #radiusInKm = 5.000
SET #lat2Compare = insert_your_lat_to_compare_here
SET #long2Compare = insert_you_long_to_compare_here
SELECT * FROM insert_your_table_here WITH(NOLOCK)
WHERE (6371.392896*2*ATN2(SQRT((sin((radians(GeoLatitude - #lat2Compare)) / 2) * sin((radians(GeoLatitude - #lat2Compare)) / 2)) + (cos(radians(GeoLatitude)) * cos(radians(#lat2Compare)) * sin(radians(GeoLongitude - #long2Compare)/2) * sin(radians(GeoLongitude - #long2Compare)/2)))
, SQRT(1-((sin((radians(GeoLatitude - #lat2Compare)) / 2) * sin((radians(GeoLatitude - #lat2Compare)) / 2)) + (cos(radians(GeoLatitude)) * cos(radians(#lat2Compare)) * sin(radians(GeoLongitude - #long2Compare)/2) * sin(radians(GeoLongitude - #long2Compare)/2)))
))) <= #radiusInKm
If you would like to perform the Haversine formula in C#,
double resultDistance = 0.0;
double avgRadiusOfEarth = 6371.392896; //Radius of the earth differ, I'm taking the average.
//Haversine formula
//distance = R * 2 * aTan2 ( square root of A, square root of 1 - A )
// where A = sinus squared (difference in latitude / 2) + (cosine of latitude 1 * cosine of latitude 2 * sinus squared (difference in longitude / 2))
// and R = the circumference of the earth
double differenceInLat = DegreeToRadian(currentLatitude - latitudeToCompare);
double differenceInLong = DegreeToRadian(currentLongitude - longtitudeToCompare);
double aInnerFormula = Math.Cos(DegreeToRadian(currentLatitude)) * Math.Cos(DegreeToRadian(latitudeToCompare)) * Math.Sin(differenceInLong / 2) * Math.Sin(differenceInLong / 2);
double aFormula = (Math.Sin((differenceInLat) / 2) * Math.Sin((differenceInLat) / 2)) + (aInnerFormula);
resultDistance = avgRadiusOfEarth * 2 * Math.Atan2(Math.Sqrt(aFormula), Math.Sqrt(1 - aFormula));
DegreesToRadian is a function I custom created, its is a simple 1 liner of"Math.PI * angle / 180.0
My blog entry - SQL Haversine
Are you looking for
Haversine formula
The haversine formula is an equation
important in navigation, giving
great-circle distances between two
points on a sphere from their
longitudes and latitudes. It is a
special case of a more general formula
in spherical trigonometry, the law of
haversines, relating the sides and
angles of spherical "triangles".
Have a look at this.. has a javascript example as well.
Find Distance
Use the Great Circle Distance Formula.
here is a fiddle with finding locations / near locations to long/lat by given IP:
http://jsfiddle.net/bassta/zrgd9qc3/2/
And here is the function I use to calculate the distance in straight line:
function distance(lat1, lng1, lat2, lng2) {
var radlat1 = Math.PI * lat1 / 180;
var radlat2 = Math.PI * lat2 / 180;
var radlon1 = Math.PI * lng1 / 180;
var radlon2 = Math.PI * lng2 / 180;
var theta = lng1 - lng2;
var radtheta = Math.PI * theta / 180;
var dist = Math.sin(radlat1) * Math.sin(radlat2) + Math.cos(radlat1) * Math.cos(radlat2) * Math.cos(radtheta);
dist = Math.acos(dist);
dist = dist * 180 / Math.PI;
dist = dist * 60 * 1.1515;
//Get in in kilometers
dist = dist * 1.609344;
return dist;
}
It returns the distance in Kilometers
If you are measuring distances less than (perhaps) 1 degree lat/long change, are looking for a very high performance approximation, and are willing to accept more inaccuracy than Haversine formula, consider these two alternatives:
(1) "Polar Coordinate Flat-Earth Formula" from Computing Distances:
a = pi/2 - lat1
b = pi/2 - lat2
c = sqrt( a^2 + b^2 - 2 * a * b * cos(lon2 - lon1) )
d = R * c
(2) Pythagorean theorem adjusted for latitude, as seen in Ewan Todd's SO post:
d_ew = (long1 - long0) * cos(average(lat0, lat1))
d_ns = (lat1 - lat0)
d = sqrt(d_ew * d_ew + d_ns * d_ns)
NOTES:
Compared to Ewan's post, I've substituted average(lat0, lat1) for lat0 inside of cos( lat0 ).
#2 is vague on whether values are degrees, radians, or kilometers; you will need some conversion code as well. See my complete code at bottom of this post.
#1 is designed to work well even near the poles, though if you are measuring a distance whose endpoints are on "opposite" sides of the pole (longitudes differ by more than 90 degrees?), Haversine is recommended instead, even for small distances.
I haven't thoroughly measured errors of these approaches, so you should take representative points for your application, and compare results to some high-quality library, to decide if the accuracies are acceptable. For distances less than a few kilometers my gut sense is that these are within 1% of correct measurement.
An alternative way to gain high performance (when applicable):
If you have a large set of static points, within one or two degrees of longitude/latitude, that you will then be calculating distances from a small number of dynamic (moving) points, consider converting your static points ONCE to the containing UTM zone (or to any other local Cartesian coordinate system), and then doing all your math in that Cartesian coordinate system.
Cartesian = flat earth = Pythagorean theorem applies, so distance = sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2).
Then the cost of accurately converting the few moving points to UTM is easily afforded.
CAVEAT for #1 (Polar): May be very wrong for distances less than 0.1 (?) meter. Even with double precision math, the following coordinates, whose true distance is about 0.005 meters, was given as "zero" by my implementation of Polar algorithm:
inputs:
lon1Xdeg 16.6564465477996 double
lat1Ydeg 57.7760262271983 double
lon2Xdeg 16.6564466358281 double
lat2Ydeg 57.776026248554 double
results:
Oblate spheroid formula:
0.00575254911118364 double
Haversine:
0.00573422966122257 double
Polar:
0
this was due to the two factors u and v exactly canceling each other:
u 0.632619944868587 double
v -0.632619944868587 double
In another case, it gave a distance of 0.067129 m when the oblate spheroid answer was 0.002887 m. The problem was that cos(lon2 - lon1) was too close to 1, so cos function returned exactly 1.
Other than measuring sub-meter distances, the max errors (compared to an oblate spheroid formula) I found for the limited small-distance data I've fed in so far:
maxHaversineErrorRatio 0.00350976281908381 double
maxPolarErrorRatio 0.0510789996931342 double
where "1" would represent a 100% error in the answer; e.g. when it returned "0", that was an error of "1" (excluded from above "maxPolar"). So "0.01" would be an error of "1 part in 100" or 1%.
Comparing Polar error with Haversine error over distances less than 2000 meters to see how much worse this simpler formula is. So far, the worst I've seen is 51 parts per 1000 for Polar vs 4 parts per 1000 for Haversine. At about 58 degrees latitude.
Now implemented "Pythagorean with Latitude Adjustment".
It is MUCH more consistent than Polar for distances < 2000 m.
I originally thought the Polar problems were only when < 1 m,
but the result shown immediately below is quite troubling.
As distances approach zero, pythagorean/latitude approaches haversine.
For example this measurement ~ 217 meters:
lon1Xdeg 16.6531667510102 double
lat1Ydeg 57.7751705615804 double
lon2Xdeg 16.6564468739869 double
lat2Ydeg 57.7760263007586 double
oblate 217.201200413731
haversine 216.518428601051
polar 226.128616011973
pythag-cos 216.518428631907
havErrRatio 0.00314349925958048
polErrRatio 0.041102054598393
pycErrRatio 0.00314349911751603
Polar has a much worse error with these inputs; either there is some mistake in my code, or in Cos function I am running on, or I have to recommend not using Polar, even though most Polar measurements were much closer than this.
OTOH, Pythagorean, even with * cos(latitude) adjustment, has error that increases more rapidly than distance (ratio of max_error/distance increases for larger distances), so you need to carefully consider the maximum distance you will measure, and the acceptable error. In addition, it is not advisable to COMPARE two nearly-equal distances using Pythagorean, to decide which is shorter, as the error is different in different DIRECTIONS (evidence not shown).
Worst case measurements, errorRatio = Abs(error) / distance (Sweden; up to 2000 m):
t_maxHaversineErrorRatio 0.00351012021578681 double
t_maxPolarErrorRatio 66.0825360597085 double
t_maxPythagoreanErrorRatio 0.00350976281416454 double
As mentioned before, the extreme polar errors are for sub-meter distances, where it could report zero instead of 6 cm, or report over 0.5 m for a distance of 1 cm (hence the "66 x" worst case shown in t_maxPolarErrorRatio), but there are also some poor results at larger distances. [Needs to be tested again with a Cosine function that is known to be highly accurate.]
Measurements taken in C# code in Xamarin.Android running on a Moto E4.
C# code:
// x=longitude, y= latitude. oblate spheroid formula. TODO: From where?
public static double calculateDistanceDD_AED( double lon1Xdeg, double lat1Ydeg, double lon2Xdeg, double lat2Ydeg )
{
double c_dblEarthRadius = 6378.135; // km
double c_dblFlattening = 1.0 / 298.257223563; // WGS84 inverse
// flattening
// Q: Why "-" for longitudes??
double p1x = -degreesToRadians( lon1Xdeg );
double p1y = degreesToRadians( lat1Ydeg );
double p2x = -degreesToRadians( lon2Xdeg );
double p2y = degreesToRadians( lat2Ydeg );
double F = (p1y + p2y) / 2;
double G = (p1y - p2y) / 2;
double L = (p1x - p2x) / 2;
double sing = Math.Sin( G );
double cosl = Math.Cos( L );
double cosf = Math.Cos( F );
double sinl = Math.Sin( L );
double sinf = Math.Sin( F );
double cosg = Math.Cos( G );
double S = sing * sing * cosl * cosl + cosf * cosf * sinl * sinl;
double C = cosg * cosg * cosl * cosl + sinf * sinf * sinl * sinl;
double W = Math.Atan2( Math.Sqrt( S ), Math.Sqrt( C ) );
if (W == 0.0)
return 0.0;
double R = Math.Sqrt( (S * C) ) / W;
double H1 = (3 * R - 1.0) / (2.0 * C);
double H2 = (3 * R + 1.0) / (2.0 * S);
double D = 2 * W * c_dblEarthRadius;
// Apply flattening factor
D = D * (1.0 + c_dblFlattening * H1 * sinf * sinf * cosg * cosg - c_dblFlattening * H2 * cosf * cosf * sing * sing);
// Transform to meters
D = D * 1000.0;
// tmstest
if (true)
{
// Compare Haversine.
double haversine = HaversineApproxDistanceGeo( lon1Xdeg, lat1Ydeg, lon2Xdeg, lat2Ydeg );
double error = haversine - D;
double absError = Math.Abs( error );
double errorRatio = absError / D;
if (errorRatio > t_maxHaversineErrorRatio)
{
if (errorRatio > t_maxHaversineErrorRatio * 1.1)
Helper.test();
t_maxHaversineErrorRatio = errorRatio;
}
// Compare Polar Coordinate Flat Earth.
double polarDistanceGeo = ApproxDistanceGeo_Polar( lon1Xdeg, lat1Ydeg, lon2Xdeg, lat2Ydeg, D );
double error2 = polarDistanceGeo - D;
double absError2 = Math.Abs( error2 );
double errorRatio2 = absError2 / D;
if (errorRatio2 > t_maxPolarErrorRatio)
{
if (polarDistanceGeo > 0)
{
if (errorRatio2 > t_maxPolarErrorRatio * 1.1)
Helper.test();
t_maxPolarErrorRatio = errorRatio2;
}
else
Helper.dubious();
}
// Compare Pythagorean Theorem with Latitude Adjustment.
double pythagoreanDistanceGeo = ApproxDistanceGeo_PythagoreanCosLatitude( lon1Xdeg, lat1Ydeg, lon2Xdeg, lat2Ydeg, D );
double error3 = pythagoreanDistanceGeo - D;
double absError3 = Math.Abs( error3 );
double errorRatio3 = absError3 / D;
if (errorRatio3 > t_maxPythagoreanErrorRatio)
{
if (D < 2000)
{
if (errorRatio3 > t_maxPythagoreanErrorRatio * 1.05)
Helper.test();
t_maxPythagoreanErrorRatio = errorRatio3;
}
}
}
return D;
}
// As a fraction of the distance.
private static double t_maxHaversineErrorRatio, t_maxPolarErrorRatio, t_maxPythagoreanErrorRatio;
// Average of equatorial and polar radii (meters).
public const double EarthAvgRadius = 6371000;
public const double EarthAvgCircumference = EarthAvgRadius * 2 * PI;
// CAUTION: This is an average of great circles; won't be the actual distance of any longitude or latitude degree.
public const double EarthAvgMeterPerGreatCircleDegree = EarthAvgCircumference / 360;
// Haversine formula (assumes Earth is sphere).
// "deg" = degrees.
// Perhaps based on Haversine Formula in https://cs.nyu.edu/visual/home/proj/tiger/gisfaq.html
public static double HaversineApproxDistanceGeo(double lon1Xdeg, double lat1Ydeg, double lon2Xdeg, double lat2Ydeg)
{
double lon1 = degreesToRadians( lon1Xdeg );
double lat1 = degreesToRadians( lat1Ydeg );
double lon2 = degreesToRadians( lon2Xdeg );
double lat2 = degreesToRadians( lat2Ydeg );
double dlon = lon2 - lon1;
double dlat = lat2 - lat1;
double sinDLat2 = Sin( dlat / 2 );
double sinDLon2 = Sin( dlon / 2 );
double a = sinDLat2 * sinDLat2 + Cos( lat1 ) * Cos( lat2 ) * sinDLon2 * sinDLon2;
double c = 2 * Atan2( Sqrt( a ), Sqrt( 1 - a ) );
double d = EarthAvgRadius * c;
return d;
}
// From https://stackoverflow.com/a/19772119/199364
// Based on Polar Coordinate Flat Earth in https://cs.nyu.edu/visual/home/proj/tiger/gisfaq.html
public static double ApproxDistanceGeo_Polar( double lon1deg, double lat1deg, double lon2deg, double lat2deg, double D = 0 )
{
double approxUnitDistSq = ApproxUnitDistSq_Polar(lon1deg, lat1deg, lon2deg, lat2deg, D);
double c = Sqrt( approxUnitDistSq );
return EarthAvgRadius * c;
}
// Might be useful to avoid taking Sqrt, when comparing to some threshold.
// Threshold would have to be adjusted to match: Power(threshold / EarthAvgRadius, 2)
private static double ApproxUnitDistSq_Polar(double lon1deg, double lat1deg, double lon2deg, double lat2deg, double D = 0 )
{
const double HalfPi = PI / 2; //1.5707963267949;
double lon1 = degreesToRadians(lon1deg);
double lat1 = degreesToRadians(lat1deg);
double lon2 = degreesToRadians(lon2deg);
double lat2 = degreesToRadians(lat2deg);
double a = HalfPi - lat1;
double b = HalfPi - lat2;
double u = a * a + b * b;
double dlon21 = lon2 - lon1;
double cosDeltaLon = Cos( dlon21 );
double v = -2 * a * b * cosDeltaLon;
// TBD: Is "Abs" necessary? That is, is "u + v" ever negative?
// (I think not; "v" looks like a secondary term. Though might be round-off issue near zero when a~=b.)
double approxUnitDistSq = Abs(u + v);
//if (approxUnitDistSq.nearlyEquals(0, 1E-16))
// Helper.dubious();
//else if (D > 0)
//{
// double dba = b - a;
// double unitD = D / EarthAvgRadius;
// double unitDSq = unitD * unitD;
// if (approxUnitDistSq > 2 * unitDSq)
// Helper.dubious();
// else if (approxUnitDistSq * 2 < unitDSq)
// Helper.dubious();
//}
return approxUnitDistSq;
}
// Pythagorean Theorem with Latitude Adjustment - from Ewan Todd - https://stackoverflow.com/a/1664836/199364
// Refined by ToolmakerSteve - https://stackoverflow.com/a/53468745/199364
public static double ApproxDistanceGeo_PythagoreanCosLatitude( double lon1deg, double lat1deg, double lon2deg, double lat2deg, double D = 0 )
{
double approxDegreesSq = ApproxDegreesSq_PythagoreanCosLatitude( lon1deg, lat1deg, lon2deg, lat2deg );
// approximate degrees on the great circle between the points.
double d_degrees = Sqrt( approxDegreesSq );
return d_degrees * EarthAvgMeterPerGreatCircleDegree;
}
public static double ApproxDegreesSq_PythagoreanCosLatitude( double lon1deg, double lat1deg, double lon2deg, double lat2deg )
{
double avgLatDeg = average( lat1deg , lat2deg );
double avgLat = degreesToRadians( avgLatDeg );
double d_ew = (lon2deg - lon1deg) * Cos( avgLat );
double d_ns = (lat2deg - lat1deg);
double approxDegreesSq = d_ew * d_ew + d_ns * d_ns;
return approxDegreesSq;
}
I am done using SQL query
select *, (acos(sin(input_lat* 0.01745329)*sin(lattitude *0.01745329) + cos(input_lat *0.01745329)*cos(lattitude *0.01745329)*cos((input_long -longitude)*0.01745329))* 57.29577951 )* 69.16 As D from table_name
Following is the module (coded in f90) containing three formulas discussed in the previous answers. You can either put this module at the top of your program
(before PROGRAM MAIN) or compile it separately and include the module directory during compilation. The following module contains three formulas. First two are great-circle distances based on the assumption that earth is spherical.
module spherical_dists
contains
subroutine great_circle_distance(lon1,lat1,lon2,lat2,dist)
!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great-circle_distance
! It takes lon, lats of two points on an assumed spherical earth and
! calculates the distance between them along the great circle connecting the two points
implicit none
real,intent(in)::lon1,lon2,lat1,lat2
real,intent(out)::dist
real,parameter::pi=3.141592,mean_earth_radius=6371.0088
real::lonr1,lonr2,latr1,latr2
real::delangl,dellon
lonr1=lon1*(pi/180.);lonr2=lon2*(pi/180.)
latr1=lat1*(pi/180.);latr2=lat2*(pi/180.)
dellon=lonr2-lonr1
delangl=acos(sin(latr1)*sin(latr2)+cos(latr1)*cos(latr2)*cos(dellon))
dist=delangl*mean_earth_radius
end subroutine
subroutine haversine_formula(lon1,lat1,lon2,lat2,dist)
! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haversine_formula
! This is similar above but numerically better conditioned for small distances
implicit none
real,intent(in)::lon1,lon2,lat1,lat2
!lon, lats of two points
real,intent(out)::dist
real,parameter::pi=3.141592,mean_earth_radius=6371.0088
real::lonr1,lonr2,latr1,latr2
real::delangl,dellon,dellat,a
! degrees are converted to radians
lonr1=lon1*(pi/180.);lonr2=lon2*(pi/180.)
latr1=lat1*(pi/180.);latr2=lat2*(pi/180.)
dellon=lonr2-lonr1 ! These dels simplify the haversine formula
dellat=latr2-latr1
! The actual haversine formula
a=(sin(dellat/2))**2+cos(latr1)*cos(latr2)*(sin(dellon/2))**2
delangl=2*asin(sqrt(a)) !2*asin(sqrt(a))
dist=delangl*mean_earth_radius
end subroutine
subroutine vincenty_formula(lon1,lat1,lon2,lat2,dist)
!https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenty%27s_formulae
!It's a better approximation over previous two, since it considers earth to in oblate spheroid, which better approximates the shape of the earth
implicit none
real,intent(in)::lon1,lon2,lat1,lat2
real,intent(out)::dist
real,parameter::pi=3.141592,mean_earth_radius=6371.0088
real::lonr1,lonr2,latr1,latr2
real::delangl,dellon,nom,denom
lonr1=lon1*(pi/180.);lonr2=lon2*(pi/180.)
latr1=lat1*(pi/180.);latr2=lat2*(pi/180.)
dellon=lonr2-lonr1
nom=sqrt((cos(latr2)*sin(dellon))**2. + (cos(latr1)*sin(latr2)-sin(latr1)*cos(latr2)*cos(dellon))**2.)
denom=sin(latr1)*sin(latr2)+cos(latr1)*cos(latr2)*cos(dellon)
delangl=atan2(nom,denom)
dist=delangl*mean_earth_radius
end subroutine
end module
On this page you can see the whole code and formulas how distances of locations are calculated in Android Location class
android/location/Location.java
EDIT: According the hint from #Richard I put the code of the linked function into my answer, to avoid invalidated link:
private static void computeDistanceAndBearing(double lat1, double lon1,
double lat2, double lon2, BearingDistanceCache results) {
// Based on http://www.ngs.noaa.gov/PUBS_LIB/inverse.pdf
// using the "Inverse Formula" (section 4)
int MAXITERS = 20;
// Convert lat/long to radians
lat1 *= Math.PI / 180.0;
lat2 *= Math.PI / 180.0;
lon1 *= Math.PI / 180.0;
lon2 *= Math.PI / 180.0;
double a = 6378137.0; // WGS84 major axis
double b = 6356752.3142; // WGS84 semi-major axis
double f = (a - b) / a;
double aSqMinusBSqOverBSq = (a * a - b * b) / (b * b);
double L = lon2 - lon1;
double A = 0.0;
double U1 = Math.atan((1.0 - f) * Math.tan(lat1));
double U2 = Math.atan((1.0 - f) * Math.tan(lat2));
double cosU1 = Math.cos(U1);
double cosU2 = Math.cos(U2);
double sinU1 = Math.sin(U1);
double sinU2 = Math.sin(U2);
double cosU1cosU2 = cosU1 * cosU2;
double sinU1sinU2 = sinU1 * sinU2;
double sigma = 0.0;
double deltaSigma = 0.0;
double cosSqAlpha = 0.0;
double cos2SM = 0.0;
double cosSigma = 0.0;
double sinSigma = 0.0;
double cosLambda = 0.0;
double sinLambda = 0.0;
double lambda = L; // initial guess
for (int iter = 0; iter < MAXITERS; iter++) {
double lambdaOrig = lambda;
cosLambda = Math.cos(lambda);
sinLambda = Math.sin(lambda);
double t1 = cosU2 * sinLambda;
double t2 = cosU1 * sinU2 - sinU1 * cosU2 * cosLambda;
double sinSqSigma = t1 * t1 + t2 * t2; // (14)
sinSigma = Math.sqrt(sinSqSigma);
cosSigma = sinU1sinU2 + cosU1cosU2 * cosLambda; // (15)
sigma = Math.atan2(sinSigma, cosSigma); // (16)
double sinAlpha = (sinSigma == 0) ? 0.0 :
cosU1cosU2 * sinLambda / sinSigma; // (17)
cosSqAlpha = 1.0 - sinAlpha * sinAlpha;
cos2SM = (cosSqAlpha == 0) ? 0.0 :
cosSigma - 2.0 * sinU1sinU2 / cosSqAlpha; // (18)
double uSquared = cosSqAlpha * aSqMinusBSqOverBSq; // defn
A = 1 + (uSquared / 16384.0) * // (3)
(4096.0 + uSquared *
(-768 + uSquared * (320.0 - 175.0 * uSquared)));
double B = (uSquared / 1024.0) * // (4)
(256.0 + uSquared *
(-128.0 + uSquared * (74.0 - 47.0 * uSquared)));
double C = (f / 16.0) *
cosSqAlpha *
(4.0 + f * (4.0 - 3.0 * cosSqAlpha)); // (10)
double cos2SMSq = cos2SM * cos2SM;
deltaSigma = B * sinSigma * // (6)
(cos2SM + (B / 4.0) *
(cosSigma * (-1.0 + 2.0 * cos2SMSq) -
(B / 6.0) * cos2SM *
(-3.0 + 4.0 * sinSigma * sinSigma) *
(-3.0 + 4.0 * cos2SMSq)));
lambda = L +
(1.0 - C) * f * sinAlpha *
(sigma + C * sinSigma *
(cos2SM + C * cosSigma *
(-1.0 + 2.0 * cos2SM * cos2SM))); // (11)
double delta = (lambda - lambdaOrig) / lambda;
if (Math.abs(delta) < 1.0e-12) {
break;
}
}
float distance = (float) (b * A * (sigma - deltaSigma));
results.mDistance = distance;
float initialBearing = (float) Math.atan2(cosU2 * sinLambda,
cosU1 * sinU2 - sinU1 * cosU2 * cosLambda);
initialBearing *= 180.0 / Math.PI;
results.mInitialBearing = initialBearing;
float finalBearing = (float) Math.atan2(cosU1 * sinLambda,
-sinU1 * cosU2 + cosU1 * sinU2 * cosLambda);
finalBearing *= 180.0 / Math.PI;
results.mFinalBearing = finalBearing;
results.mLat1 = lat1;
results.mLat2 = lat2;
results.mLon1 = lon1;
results.mLon2 = lon2;
}
just use the distance formula Sqrt( (x2-x1)^2 + (y2-y1)^2 )

Calculate distance between two latitude-longitude points? (Haversine formula)

How do I calculate the distance between two points specified by latitude and longitude?
For clarification, I'd like the distance in kilometers; the points use the WGS84 system and I'd like to understand the relative accuracies of the approaches available.
This link might be helpful to you, as it details the use of the Haversine formula to calculate the distance.
Excerpt:
This script [in Javascript] calculates great-circle distances between the two points –
that is, the shortest distance over the earth’s surface – using the
‘Haversine’ formula.
function getDistanceFromLatLonInKm(lat1,lon1,lat2,lon2) {
var R = 6371; // Radius of the earth in km
var dLat = deg2rad(lat2-lat1); // deg2rad below
var dLon = deg2rad(lon2-lon1);
var a =
Math.sin(dLat/2) * Math.sin(dLat/2) +
Math.cos(deg2rad(lat1)) * Math.cos(deg2rad(lat2)) *
Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.sin(dLon/2)
;
var c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1-a));
var d = R * c; // Distance in km
return d;
}
function deg2rad(deg) {
return deg * (Math.PI/180)
}
I needed to calculate a lot of distances between the points for my project, so I went ahead and tried to optimize the code, I have found here. On average in different browsers my new implementation runs 2 times faster than the most upvoted answer.
function distance(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) {
var p = 0.017453292519943295; // Math.PI / 180
var c = Math.cos;
var a = 0.5 - c((lat2 - lat1) * p)/2 +
c(lat1 * p) * c(lat2 * p) *
(1 - c((lon2 - lon1) * p))/2;
return 12742 * Math.asin(Math.sqrt(a)); // 2 * R; R = 6371 km
}
You can play with my jsPerf and see the results here.
Recently I needed to do the same in python, so here is a python implementation:
from math import cos, asin, sqrt, pi
def distance(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2):
p = pi/180
a = 0.5 - cos((lat2-lat1)*p)/2 + cos(lat1*p) * cos(lat2*p) * (1-cos((lon2-lon1)*p))/2
return 12742 * asin(sqrt(a)) #2*R*asin...
And for the sake of completeness: Haversine on Wikipedia.
Here is a C# Implementation:
static class DistanceAlgorithm
{
const double PIx = 3.141592653589793;
const double RADIUS = 6378.16;
/// <summary>
/// Convert degrees to Radians
/// </summary>
/// <param name="x">Degrees</param>
/// <returns>The equivalent in radians</returns>
public static double Radians(double x)
{
return x * PIx / 180;
}
/// <summary>
/// Calculate the distance between two places.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="lon1"></param>
/// <param name="lat1"></param>
/// <param name="lon2"></param>
/// <param name="lat2"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static double DistanceBetweenPlaces(
double lon1,
double lat1,
double lon2,
double lat2)
{
double dlon = Radians(lon2 - lon1);
double dlat = Radians(lat2 - lat1);
double a = (Math.Sin(dlat / 2) * Math.Sin(dlat / 2)) + Math.Cos(Radians(lat1)) * Math.Cos(Radians(lat2)) * (Math.Sin(dlon / 2) * Math.Sin(dlon / 2));
double angle = 2 * Math.Atan2(Math.Sqrt(a), Math.Sqrt(1 - a));
return angle * RADIUS;
}
}
Here is a java implementation of the Haversine formula.
public final static double AVERAGE_RADIUS_OF_EARTH_KM = 6371;
public int calculateDistanceInKilometer(double userLat, double userLng,
double venueLat, double venueLng) {
double latDistance = Math.toRadians(userLat - venueLat);
double lngDistance = Math.toRadians(userLng - venueLng);
double a = Math.sin(latDistance / 2) * Math.sin(latDistance / 2)
+ Math.cos(Math.toRadians(userLat)) * Math.cos(Math.toRadians(venueLat))
* Math.sin(lngDistance / 2) * Math.sin(lngDistance / 2);
double c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1 - a));
return (int) (Math.round(AVERAGE_RADIUS_OF_EARTH_KM * c));
}
Note that here we are rounding the answer to the nearest km.
Thanks very much for all this. I used the following code in my Objective-C iPhone app:
const double PIx = 3.141592653589793;
const double RADIO = 6371; // Mean radius of Earth in Km
double convertToRadians(double val) {
return val * PIx / 180;
}
-(double)kilometresBetweenPlace1:(CLLocationCoordinate2D) place1 andPlace2:(CLLocationCoordinate2D) place2 {
double dlon = convertToRadians(place2.longitude - place1.longitude);
double dlat = convertToRadians(place2.latitude - place1.latitude);
double a = ( pow(sin(dlat / 2), 2) + cos(convertToRadians(place1.latitude))) * cos(convertToRadians(place2.latitude)) * pow(sin(dlon / 2), 2);
double angle = 2 * asin(sqrt(a));
return angle * RADIO;
}
Latitude and Longitude are in decimal. I didn't use min() for the asin() call as the distances that I'm using are so small that they don't require it.
It gave incorrect answers until I passed in the values in Radians - now it's pretty much the same as the values obtained from Apple's Map app :-)
Extra update:
If you are using iOS4 or later then Apple provide some methods to do this so the same functionality would be achieved with:
-(double)kilometresBetweenPlace1:(CLLocationCoordinate2D) place1 andPlace2:(CLLocationCoordinate2D) place2 {
MKMapPoint start, finish;
start = MKMapPointForCoordinate(place1);
finish = MKMapPointForCoordinate(place2);
return MKMetersBetweenMapPoints(start, finish) / 1000;
}
This is a simple PHP function that will give a very reasonable approximation (under +/-1% error margin).
<?php
function distance($lat1, $lon1, $lat2, $lon2) {
$pi80 = M_PI / 180;
$lat1 *= $pi80;
$lon1 *= $pi80;
$lat2 *= $pi80;
$lon2 *= $pi80;
$r = 6372.797; // mean radius of Earth in km
$dlat = $lat2 - $lat1;
$dlon = $lon2 - $lon1;
$a = sin($dlat / 2) * sin($dlat / 2) + cos($lat1) * cos($lat2) * sin($dlon / 2) * sin($dlon / 2);
$c = 2 * atan2(sqrt($a), sqrt(1 - $a));
$km = $r * $c;
//echo '<br/>'.$km;
return $km;
}
?>
As said before; the earth is NOT a sphere. It is like an old, old baseball that Mark McGwire decided to practice with - it is full of dents and bumps. The simpler calculations (like this) treat it like a sphere.
Different methods may be more or less precise according to where you are on this irregular ovoid AND how far apart your points are (the closer they are the smaller the absolute error margin). The more precise your expectation, the more complex the math.
For more info: wikipedia geographic distance
I post here my working example.
List all points in table having distance between a designated point (we use a random point - lat:45.20327, long:23.7806) less than 50 KM, with latitude & longitude, in MySQL (the table fields are coord_lat and coord_long):
List all having DISTANCE<50, in Kilometres (considered Earth radius 6371 KM):
SELECT denumire, (6371 * acos( cos( radians(45.20327) ) * cos( radians( coord_lat ) ) * cos( radians( 23.7806 ) - radians(coord_long) ) + sin( radians(45.20327) ) * sin( radians(coord_lat) ) )) AS distanta
FROM obiective
WHERE coord_lat<>''
AND coord_long<>''
HAVING distanta<50
ORDER BY distanta desc
The above example was tested in MySQL 5.0.95 and 5.5.16 (Linux).
In the other answers an implementation in r is missing.
Calculating the distance between two point is quite straightforward with the distm function from the geosphere package:
distm(p1, p2, fun = distHaversine)
where:
p1 = longitude/latitude for point(s)
p2 = longitude/latitude for point(s)
# type of distance calculation
fun = distCosine / distHaversine / distVincentySphere / distVincentyEllipsoid
As the earth is not perfectly spherical, the Vincenty formula for ellipsoids is probably the best way to calculate distances. Thus in the geosphere package you use then:
distm(p1, p2, fun = distVincentyEllipsoid)
Off course you don't necessarily have to use geosphere package, you can also calculate the distance in base R with a function:
hav.dist <- function(long1, lat1, long2, lat2) {
R <- 6371
diff.long <- (long2 - long1)
diff.lat <- (lat2 - lat1)
a <- sin(diff.lat/2)^2 + cos(lat1) * cos(lat2) * sin(diff.long/2)^2
b <- 2 * asin(pmin(1, sqrt(a)))
d = R * b
return(d)
}
The haversine is definitely a good formula for probably most cases, other answers already include it so I am not going to take the space. But it is important to note that no matter what formula is used (yes not just one). Because of the huge range of accuracy possible as well as the computation time required. The choice of formula requires a bit more thought than a simple no brainer answer.
This posting from a person at nasa, is the best one I found at discussing the options
http://www.cs.nyu.edu/visual/home/proj/tiger/gisfaq.html
For example, if you are just sorting rows by distance in a 100 miles radius. The flat earth formula will be much faster than the haversine.
HalfPi = 1.5707963;
R = 3956; /* the radius gives you the measurement unit*/
a = HalfPi - latoriginrad;
b = HalfPi - latdestrad;
u = a * a + b * b;
v = - 2 * a * b * cos(longdestrad - longoriginrad);
c = sqrt(abs(u + v));
return R * c;
Notice there is just one cosine and one square root. Vs 9 of them on the Haversine formula.
There could be a simpler solution, and more correct: The perimeter of earth is 40,000Km at the equator, about 37,000 on Greenwich (or any longitude) cycle. Thus:
pythagoras = function (lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) {
function sqr(x) {return x * x;}
function cosDeg(x) {return Math.cos(x * Math.PI / 180.0);}
var earthCyclePerimeter = 40000000.0 * cosDeg((lat1 + lat2) / 2.0);
var dx = (lon1 - lon2) * earthCyclePerimeter / 360.0;
var dy = 37000000.0 * (lat1 - lat2) / 360.0;
return Math.sqrt(sqr(dx) + sqr(dy));
};
I agree that it should be fine-tuned as, I myself said that it's an ellipsoid, so the radius to be multiplied by the cosine varies. But it's a bit more accurate. Compared with Google Maps and it did reduce the error significantly.
pip install haversine
Python implementation
Origin is the center of the contiguous United States.
from haversine import haversine, Unit
origin = (39.50, 98.35)
paris = (48.8567, 2.3508)
haversine(origin, paris, unit=Unit.MILES)
To get the answer in kilometers simply set unit=Unit.KILOMETERS (that's the default).
There is some errors in the code provided, I've fixed it below.
All the above answers assumes the earth is a sphere. However, a more accurate approximation would be that of an oblate spheroid.
a= 6378.137#equitorial radius in km
b= 6356.752#polar radius in km
def Distance(lat1, lons1, lat2, lons2):
lat1=math.radians(lat1)
lons1=math.radians(lons1)
R1=(((((a**2)*math.cos(lat1))**2)+(((b**2)*math.sin(lat1))**2))/((a*math.cos(lat1))**2+(b*math.sin(lat1))**2))**0.5 #radius of earth at lat1
x1=R1*math.cos(lat1)*math.cos(lons1)
y1=R1*math.cos(lat1)*math.sin(lons1)
z1=R1*math.sin(lat1)
lat2=math.radians(lat2)
lons2=math.radians(lons2)
R2=(((((a**2)*math.cos(lat2))**2)+(((b**2)*math.sin(lat2))**2))/((a*math.cos(lat2))**2+(b*math.sin(lat2))**2))**0.5 #radius of earth at lat2
x2=R2*math.cos(lat2)*math.cos(lons2)
y2=R2*math.cos(lat2)*math.sin(lons2)
z2=R2*math.sin(lat2)
return ((x1-x2)**2+(y1-y2)**2+(z1-z2)**2)**0.5
I don't like adding yet another answer, but the Google maps API v.3 has spherical geometry (and more). After converting your WGS84 to decimal degrees you can do this:
<script src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false&libraries=geometry" type="text/javascript"></script>
distance = google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(
new google.maps.LatLng(fromLat, fromLng),
new google.maps.LatLng(toLat, toLng));
No word about how accurate Google's calculations are or even what model is used (though it does say "spherical" rather than "geoid". By the way, the "straight line" distance will obviously be different from the distance if one travels on the surface of the earth which is what everyone seems to be presuming.
You can use the build in CLLocationDistance to calculate this:
CLLocation *location1 = [[CLLocation alloc] initWithLatitude:latitude1 longitude:longitude1];
CLLocation *location2 = [[CLLocation alloc] initWithLatitude:latitude2 longitude:longitude2];
[self distanceInMetersFromLocation:location1 toLocation:location2]
- (int)distanceInMetersFromLocation:(CLLocation*)location1 toLocation:(CLLocation*)location2 {
CLLocationDistance distanceInMeters = [location1 distanceFromLocation:location2];
return distanceInMeters;
}
In your case if you want kilometers just divide by 1000.
As pointed out, an accurate calculation should take into account that the earth is not a perfect sphere. Here are some comparisons of the various algorithms offered here:
geoDistance(50,5,58,3)
Haversine: 899 km
Maymenn: 833 km
Keerthana: 897 km
google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(): 900 km
geoDistance(50,5,-58,-3)
Haversine: 12030 km
Maymenn: 11135 km
Keerthana: 10310 km
google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(): 12044 km
geoDistance(.05,.005,.058,.003)
Haversine: 0.9169 km
Maymenn: 0.851723 km
Keerthana: 0.917964 km
google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(): 0.917964 km
geoDistance(.05,80,.058,80.3)
Haversine: 33.37 km
Maymenn: 33.34 km
Keerthana: 33.40767 km
google.maps.geometry.spherical.computeDistanceBetween(): 33.40770 km
Over small distances, Keerthana's algorithm does seem to coincide with that of Google Maps. Google Maps does not seem to follow any simple algorithm, suggesting that it may be the most accurate method here.
Anyway, here is a Javascript implementation of Keerthana's algorithm:
function geoDistance(lat1, lng1, lat2, lng2){
const a = 6378.137; // equitorial radius in km
const b = 6356.752; // polar radius in km
var sq = x => (x*x);
var sqr = x => Math.sqrt(x);
var cos = x => Math.cos(x);
var sin = x => Math.sin(x);
var radius = lat => sqr((sq(a*a*cos(lat))+sq(b*b*sin(lat)))/(sq(a*cos(lat))+sq(b*sin(lat))));
lat1 = lat1 * Math.PI / 180;
lng1 = lng1 * Math.PI / 180;
lat2 = lat2 * Math.PI / 180;
lng2 = lng2 * Math.PI / 180;
var R1 = radius(lat1);
var x1 = R1*cos(lat1)*cos(lng1);
var y1 = R1*cos(lat1)*sin(lng1);
var z1 = R1*sin(lat1);
var R2 = radius(lat2);
var x2 = R2*cos(lat2)*cos(lng2);
var y2 = R2*cos(lat2)*sin(lng2);
var z2 = R2*sin(lat2);
return sqr(sq(x1-x2)+sq(y1-y2)+sq(z1-z2));
}
Here is a typescript implementation of the Haversine formula
static getDistanceFromLatLonInKm(lat1: number, lon1: number, lat2: number, lon2: number): number {
var deg2Rad = deg => {
return deg * Math.PI / 180;
}
var r = 6371; // Radius of the earth in km
var dLat = deg2Rad(lat2 - lat1);
var dLon = deg2Rad(lon2 - lon1);
var a =
Math.sin(dLat / 2) * Math.sin(dLat / 2) +
Math.cos(deg2Rad(lat1)) * Math.cos(deg2Rad(lat2)) *
Math.sin(dLon / 2) * Math.sin(dLon / 2);
var c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1 - a));
var d = r * c; // Distance in km
return d;
}
Here is the SQL Implementation to calculate the distance in km,
SELECT UserId, ( 3959 * acos( cos( radians( your latitude here ) ) * cos( radians(latitude) ) *
cos( radians(longitude) - radians( your longitude here ) ) + sin( radians( your latitude here ) ) *
sin( radians(latitude) ) ) ) AS distance FROM user HAVING
distance < 5 ORDER BY distance LIMIT 0 , 5;
For further details in the implementation by programming langugage, you can just go through the php script given here
This script [in PHP] calculates distances between the two points.
public static function getDistanceOfTwoPoints($source, $dest, $unit='K') {
$lat1 = $source[0];
$lon1 = $source[1];
$lat2 = $dest[0];
$lon2 = $dest[1];
$theta = $lon1 - $lon2;
$dist = sin(deg2rad($lat1)) * sin(deg2rad($lat2)) + cos(deg2rad($lat1)) * cos(deg2rad($lat2)) * cos(deg2rad($theta));
$dist = acos($dist);
$dist = rad2deg($dist);
$miles = $dist * 60 * 1.1515;
$unit = strtoupper($unit);
if ($unit == "K") {
return ($miles * 1.609344);
}
else if ($unit == "M")
{
return ($miles * 1.609344 * 1000);
}
else if ($unit == "N") {
return ($miles * 0.8684);
}
else {
return $miles;
}
}
here is an example in postgres sql (in km, for miles version, replace 1.609344 by 0.8684 version)
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION public.geodistance(alat float, alng float, blat
float, blng float)
RETURNS float AS
$BODY$
DECLARE
v_distance float;
BEGIN
v_distance = asin( sqrt(
sin(radians(blat-alat)/2)^2
+ (
(sin(radians(blng-alng)/2)^2) *
cos(radians(alat)) *
cos(radians(blat))
)
)
) * cast('7926.3352' as float) * cast('1.609344' as float) ;
RETURN v_distance;
END
$BODY$
language plpgsql VOLATILE SECURITY DEFINER;
alter function geodistance(alat float, alng float, blat float, blng float)
owner to postgres;
Java implementation in according Haversine formula
double calculateDistance(double latPoint1, double lngPoint1,
double latPoint2, double lngPoint2) {
if(latPoint1 == latPoint2 && lngPoint1 == lngPoint2) {
return 0d;
}
final double EARTH_RADIUS = 6371.0; //km value;
//converting to radians
latPoint1 = Math.toRadians(latPoint1);
lngPoint1 = Math.toRadians(lngPoint1);
latPoint2 = Math.toRadians(latPoint2);
lngPoint2 = Math.toRadians(lngPoint2);
double distance = Math.pow(Math.sin((latPoint2 - latPoint1) / 2.0), 2)
+ Math.cos(latPoint1) * Math.cos(latPoint2)
* Math.pow(Math.sin((lngPoint2 - lngPoint1) / 2.0), 2);
distance = 2.0 * EARTH_RADIUS * Math.asin(Math.sqrt(distance));
return distance; //km value
}
I made a custom function in R to calculate haversine distance(km) between two spatial points using functions available in R base package.
custom_hav_dist <- function(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2) {
R <- 6371
Radian_factor <- 0.0174533
lat_1 <- (90-lat1)*Radian_factor
lat_2 <- (90-lat2)*Radian_factor
diff_long <-(lon1-lon2)*Radian_factor
distance_in_km <- 6371*acos((cos(lat_1)*cos(lat_2))+
(sin(lat_1)*sin(lat_2)*cos(diff_long)))
rm(lat1, lon1, lat2, lon2)
return(distance_in_km)
}
Sample output
custom_hav_dist(50.31,19.08,54.14,19.39)
[1] 426.3987
PS: To calculate distances in miles, substitute R in function (6371) with 3958.756 (and for nautical miles, use 3440.065).
To calculate the distance between two points on a sphere you need to do the Great Circle calculation.
There are a number of C/C++ libraries to help with map projection at MapTools if you need to reproject your distances to a flat surface. To do this you will need the projection string of the various coordinate systems.
You may also find MapWindow a useful tool to visualise the points. Also as its open source its a useful guide to how to use the proj.dll library, which appears to be the core open source projection library.
Here is my java implementation for calculation distance via decimal degrees after some search. I used mean radius of world (from wikipedia) in km. İf you want result miles then use world radius in miles.
public static double distanceLatLong2(double lat1, double lng1, double lat2, double lng2)
{
double earthRadius = 6371.0d; // KM: use mile here if you want mile result
double dLat = toRadian(lat2 - lat1);
double dLng = toRadian(lng2 - lng1);
double a = Math.pow(Math.sin(dLat/2), 2) +
Math.cos(toRadian(lat1)) * Math.cos(toRadian(lat2)) *
Math.pow(Math.sin(dLng/2), 2);
double c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1-a));
return earthRadius * c; // returns result kilometers
}
public static double toRadian(double degrees)
{
return (degrees * Math.PI) / 180.0d;
}
Here's the accepted answer implementation ported to Java in case anyone needs it.
package com.project529.garage.util;
/**
* Mean radius.
*/
private static double EARTH_RADIUS = 6371;
/**
* Returns the distance between two sets of latitudes and longitudes in meters.
* <p/>
* Based from the following JavaScript SO answer:
* http://stackoverflow.com/questions/27928/calculate-distance-between-two-latitude-longitude-points-haversine-formula,
* which is based on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haversine_formula (error rate: ~0.55%).
*/
public double getDistanceBetween(double lat1, double lon1, double lat2, double lon2) {
double dLat = toRadians(lat2 - lat1);
double dLon = toRadians(lon2 - lon1);
double a = Math.sin(dLat / 2) * Math.sin(dLat / 2) +
Math.cos(toRadians(lat1)) * Math.cos(toRadians(lat2)) *
Math.sin(dLon / 2) * Math.sin(dLon / 2);
double c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1 - a));
double d = EARTH_RADIUS * c;
return d;
}
public double toRadians(double degrees) {
return degrees * (Math.PI / 180);
}
For those looking for an Excel formula based on WGS-84 & GRS-80 standards:
=ACOS(COS(RADIANS(90-Lat1))*COS(RADIANS(90-Lat2))+SIN(RADIANS(90-Lat1))*SIN(RADIANS(90-Lat2))*COS(RADIANS(Long1-Long2)))*6371
Source
there is a good example in here to calculate distance with PHP http://www.geodatasource.com/developers/php :
function distance($lat1, $lon1, $lat2, $lon2, $unit) {
$theta = $lon1 - $lon2;
$dist = sin(deg2rad($lat1)) * sin(deg2rad($lat2)) + cos(deg2rad($lat1)) * cos(deg2rad($lat2)) * cos(deg2rad($theta));
$dist = acos($dist);
$dist = rad2deg($dist);
$miles = $dist * 60 * 1.1515;
$unit = strtoupper($unit);
if ($unit == "K") {
return ($miles * 1.609344);
} else if ($unit == "N") {
return ($miles * 0.8684);
} else {
return $miles;
}
}
Here is the implementation VB.NET, this implementation will give you the result in KM or Miles based on an Enum value you pass.
Public Enum DistanceType
Miles
KiloMeters
End Enum
Public Structure Position
Public Latitude As Double
Public Longitude As Double
End Structure
Public Class Haversine
Public Function Distance(Pos1 As Position,
Pos2 As Position,
DistType As DistanceType) As Double
Dim R As Double = If((DistType = DistanceType.Miles), 3960, 6371)
Dim dLat As Double = Me.toRadian(Pos2.Latitude - Pos1.Latitude)
Dim dLon As Double = Me.toRadian(Pos2.Longitude - Pos1.Longitude)
Dim a As Double = Math.Sin(dLat / 2) * Math.Sin(dLat / 2) + Math.Cos(Me.toRadian(Pos1.Latitude)) * Math.Cos(Me.toRadian(Pos2.Latitude)) * Math.Sin(dLon / 2) * Math.Sin(dLon / 2)
Dim c As Double = 2 * Math.Asin(Math.Min(1, Math.Sqrt(a)))
Dim result As Double = R * c
Return result
End Function
Private Function toRadian(val As Double) As Double
Return (Math.PI / 180) * val
End Function
End Class
I condensed the computation down by simplifying the formula.
Here it is in Ruby:
include Math
earth_radius_mi = 3959
radians = lambda { |deg| deg * PI / 180 }
coord_radians = lambda { |c| { :lat => radians[c[:lat]], :lng => radians[c[:lng]] } }
# from/to = { :lat => (latitude_in_degrees), :lng => (longitude_in_degrees) }
def haversine_distance(from, to)
from, to = coord_radians[from], coord_radians[to]
cosines_product = cos(to[:lat]) * cos(from[:lat]) * cos(from[:lng] - to[:lng])
sines_product = sin(to[:lat]) * sin(from[:lat])
return earth_radius_mi * acos(cosines_product + sines_product)
end
function getDistanceFromLatLonInKm(lat1,lon1,lat2,lon2,units) {
var R = 6371; // Radius of the earth in km
var dLat = deg2rad(lat2-lat1); // deg2rad below
var dLon = deg2rad(lon2-lon1);
var a =
Math.sin(dLat/2) * Math.sin(dLat/2) +
Math.cos(deg2rad(lat1)) * Math.cos(deg2rad(lat2)) *
Math.sin(dLon/2) * Math.sin(dLon/2)
;
var c = 2 * Math.atan2(Math.sqrt(a), Math.sqrt(1-a));
var d = R * c;
var miles = d / 1.609344;
if ( units == 'km' ) {
return d;
} else {
return miles;
}}
Chuck's solution, valid for miles also.
In Mysql use the following function pass the parameters as using POINT(LONG,LAT)
CREATE FUNCTION `distance`(a POINT, b POINT)
RETURNS double
DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
RETURN
GLength( LineString(( PointFromWKB(a)), (PointFromWKB(b)))) * 100000; -- To Make the distance in meters
END;

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