Separating bichromatic point sets in the plane by restricted orientation convex hulls

TL;DR

This paper investigates how to determine orientations of restricted lines that ensure a point set's convex hull contains no points of another set, generalizing rectilinear convex hulls for multiple line orientations efficiently.

Contribution

It provides algorithms to compute orientations of multiple lines for separating point sets using restricted-orientation convex hulls, extending previous rectilinear hull results.

Findings

Optimal algorithms for two-line and multiple-line cases.

Generalization to arbitrary line orientations.

Efficient separation detection in O(n log n) time.

Abstract

We explore the separability of point sets in the plane by a restricted-orientation convex hull, which is an orientation-dependent, possibly disconnected, and non-convex enclosing shape that generalizes the convex hull. Let $R$ and $B$ be two disjoint sets of red and blue points in the plane, and $\mathcal{O}$ be a set of $k \geq 2$ lines passing through the origin. We study the problem of computing the set of orientations of the lines of $\mathcal{O}$ for which the $\mathcal{O}$-convex hull of $R$ contains no points of $B$. For $k=2$ orthogonal lines we have the rectilinear convex hull. In optimal $O(n \log n)$ time and $O(n)$ space, $n = \vert R \vert + \vert B \vert$, we compute the set of rotation angles such that, after simultaneously rotating the lines of $\mathcal{O}$ around the origin in the same direction, the rectilinear convex hull of $R$ contains no points of $B$. We generalize this result to the case where $\mathcal{O}$ is formed by $k \geq 2$ lines with arbitrary orientations. In the counter-clockwise circular order of the lines of $\mathcal{O}$, let $\alpha_i$ be the angle required to clockwise rotate the $i$th line so it coincides with its successor. We solve the problem in this case in $O(1/\Theta \cdot N \log N)$ time and $O(1/\Theta \cdot N)$ space, where $\Theta = \min \{ \alpha_1,\ldots,\alpha_k \}$ and $N=\max\{k,\vert R \vert + \vert B \vert \}$. We finally consider the case in which $\mathcal{O}$ is formed by $k=2$ lines, one of the lines is fixed, and the second line rotates by an angle that goes from $0$ to $\pi$. We show that this last case can also be solved in optimal $O(n\log n)$ time and $O(n)$ space, where $n = \vert R \vert + \vert B \vert$.