Divide-and-Conquer

Finding a closest pair of points in R2

R. Inkulu
http://www.iitg.ac.in/rinkulu/

(Finding a closest pair of points in R2 )

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Problem description
Find a closest pair of points in the given set S of n points in R2 .
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closest pair of points are p and p

for convenience, assume that no two points in S are having the same x- or y-coordi
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Brute-force algorithm
Computing the distance between every two points in S, and choosing a
pair with the smallest distance: O(n2 ) time.
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(Finding a closest pair of points in R2 )

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Divide-Conquer-Combine

recursively do the following:

(1) partition points into left and right halves
(2) conquer the sub-problems in both the halves
(3) combine the solutions for halves critical

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Combining solutions
(i) closest pair is from left half of points
(ii) closest pair is from right half of points
(iii) closest pair is formed by one point from left half and another from right
half how to do in O(n)?
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(Finding a closest pair of points in R2 )

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Vertical strip containing p and p

For the Case 3 to occur p and p must lie in the vertical strip of width 2d
that has the dividing line between L and R at its center.
L

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dR

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(Finding a closest pair of points in R2 )

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Horizontal strip containing p and p

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d

Euclidean distance between

(Finding a closest pair of points in R2 )

and p is not less than d

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Bounding the number of candidate p s w.r.t. a p

1
d/sqrt(2)

d/2
d/2

d
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p

Euclidean distance between red points is less than d: contradicting

d = min(dL , dR )

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Combine step detailed

(a) let S be the y-sorted list of points falling within the vertical band
for each point p, find the distance between p and each of the 7 points
above p in S
(b) among all such searches, let p and p be the point pair with the minimum
distance
then return min(dist(p , p ), dL , dR ) with the corresponding points

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Correctness

termination is ensured as each branch of the recursion terminates with at

most O(1) points

algorithm is correct: induction on the number of points

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Analysis: time complexity

initial sorting according to x-coordi: O(n lg n)

initial sorting according to y-coordi: O(n lg n)
T(n) = 2T(n/2) + O(n) when n > c; otherwise, T(n) is O(1)

i.e., T(n) = O(n lg n)

total: O(n lg n) time

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