Skip to main content

Finding the medial axis of a simple polygon in linear time

  • Session 11A
  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Algorithms and Computations (ISAAC 1995)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1004))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

We give a linear-time algorithm for computing the medial axis of a simple polygon P, This answers a long-standing open question—previously, the best deterministic algorithm ran in O(n log n) time. We decompose P into pseudo-normal histograms, then influence histograms and xy monotone histograms. We can compute the medial axes for xy monotone histograms and merge to obtain the medial axis for P.

Partially supported by an NSERC grant and a BC ASI Fellowship.

Work partially supported by NSERC grant OPG0041629.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. A. Aggarwal, L. J. Guibas, J. Saxe, and P. W. Shor. A linear-time algorithm for computing the Voronoi diagram of a convex polygon. Disc. & Comp. Geom., 4:591–604, 1989.

    Google Scholar 

  2. F. Aurenhammer. Voronoi diagrams–A survey of a fundamental geometric data structure. ACM Comp. Surveys, 23(3):345–405, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  3. H. Blum. A transformation for extracting new descriptors of shape. In W. Whaten-Dunn, editor, Proc. Symp. Models for Perception of Speech and Visual Form, pages 362–380. MIT Press, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  4. B. Chazelle. Triangulating a simple polygon in linear time. Disc. & Comp. Geom., 6:485–524, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  5. O. Devillers. Randomization yields simple O(n log* n) algorithms for difficult Ω(n) problems. Int. J. Comp. Geom. App., 2(1):97–111, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  6. H. Djidjev and A. Lingas. On computing the Voronoi diagram for restricted planar figures. In WADS '91: Second Workshop on Data Structures and Algorithms, number 519 in LNCS, pages 54–64. Springer-Verlag, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  7. R. O. Duda and P. E. Hart. Pattern Classification and Scene Analysis. John Wiley & Sons, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  8. H. N. Gürsoy and N. M. Patrikalakis. An automatic coarse and fine surface mesh generation scheme based on medial axis transform: Part I algorithm. Engineering with Computers, 8:121–137, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  9. M. Held. On the Computational Geometry of Pocket Machining. Number 500 in LNCS. Springer-Verlag, 1991.

    Google Scholar 

  10. D. G. Kirkpatrick. Efficient computation of continuous skeletons. In Proc. 18th FOCS, pages 162–170, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  11. R. Klein and A. Lingas. A linear-time randomized algorithm for the bounded Voronoi diagram of a simple polygon. In Proc. 9th Ann. ACM Symp. Comp. Geom., pages 124–132, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  12. R. Klein and A. Lingas. Fast skeleton construction. To appear, Proc. 3rd Europ. Symp. on Alg. (ESA '95), 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  13. D. T. Lee. Medial axis transformation of a planar shape. IEEE Trans. Pat. Anal. Mach. Int., PAMI-4(4):363–369, 1982.

    Google Scholar 

  14. S. Lu, H. Xu, and C. Wang. Detecting and eliminating false strokes in skeletons by geometric analysis. In SPIE's OE/Technology'92, Vision Geometry, Boston, Nov. 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  15. A. Okabe, B. Boots, and K. Sugihara. Spatial Tessellations: Concepts and Applications of Voronoi Diagrams. John Wiley & Sons, 1992.

    Google Scholar 

  16. A. Rosenfeld. Axial representation of shape. Comp. Vis. Graph. Image Proc., 33:156–173, 1986.

    Google Scholar 

  17. M. I. Shamos and D. Hoey. Closest point problems. In Proc. 16th FOCS, pages 151–162, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  18. P. Vermeer. Two-dimensional mat to boundary conversion. In Proc. 2nd Symp. Solid Model. Appl., pages 493–494, 1993.

    Google Scholar 

  19. C. A. Wang and F. Chin. Finding the constrained Delaunay triangulation and constrained Voronoi diagram of a simple polygon in linear time. To appear, Proc. 3rd Europ. Symp. on Alg. (ESA '95), 1995.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

John Staples Peter Eades Naoki Katoh Alistair Moffat

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1995 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Chin, F., Snoeyink, J., Wang, C.A. (1995). Finding the medial axis of a simple polygon in linear time. In: Staples, J., Eades, P., Katoh, N., Moffat, A. (eds) Algorithms and Computations. ISAAC 1995. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1004. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0015444

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0015444

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-60573-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47766-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics