Multiple line segment intersection

{{for multi|two segments|Line segment intersection|infinite lines|Line-line intersection}}

In computational geometry, the multiple line segment intersection problem supplies a list of line segments in the Euclidean plane and asks whether any two of them intersect (cross).

Simple algorithms examine each pair of segments. However, if a large number of possibly intersecting segments are to be checked, this becomes increasingly inefficient since most pairs of segments are not close to one another in a typical input sequence. The most common, and more efficient, way to solve this problem for a high number of segments is to use a sweep line algorithm, where we imagine a line sliding across the line segments and we track which line segments it intersects at each point in time using a dynamic data structure based on binary search trees. The Shamos–Hoey algorithm{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1109/SFCS.1976.16| url = http://euro.ecom.cmu.edu/people/faculty/mshamos/1976GeometricIntersection.pdf

| title = 17th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science (sfcs 1976)

| pages = 208| year = 1976| last1 = Shamos | first1 = M. I.| last2 = Hoey | first2 = D.| s2cid = 124804

}} Chapter: "Geometric intersection problems" applies this principle to solve the line segment intersection detection problem, as stated above, of determining whether or not a set of line segments has an intersection; the Bentley–Ottmann algorithm works by the same principle to list all intersections in logarithmic time per intersection.

See also

References

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Further reading

  • {{cite book |author1=Mark de Berg |author2=Marc van Kreveld |author3=Mark Overmars |author4=and Otfried Schwarzkopf |year=2000 |title=Computational Geometry |publisher=Springer |edition=2nd |isbn=3-540-65620-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/computationalgeo00berg }} Chapter 2: Line Segment Intersection, pp. 19–44.
  • Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Ronald L. Rivest, and Clifford Stein. Introduction to Algorithms, Second Edition. MIT Press and McGraw-Hill, 1990. {{ISBN|0-262-03293-7}}. Section 33.2: Determining whether any pair of segments intersects, pp. 934–947.
  • J. L. Bentley and T. Ottmann., Algorithms for reporting and counting geometric intersections, IEEE Trans. Comput. C28 (1979), 643–647.