SHORTEST PATH AMIDST DISC OBSTACLES IS COMPUTABLE

An open question in Exact Geometric Computation is whether there are transcendental computations that can be made "geometrically exact". Perhaps the simplest such problem in computational geometry is that of computing the shortest obstacle-avoiding path between two points p,q in the plane, where the obstacles are a collection of n discs. This problem can be solved in O(n2 log n) time in the Real RAM model, but nothing was known about its computability in the standard (Turing) model of computation. We first give a direct proof of the Turing-computability of this problem, provided the radii of the discs are rationally related. We make the usual assumption that the numerical input data are real algebraic numbers. By appealing to effective bounds from transcendental number theory, we further show a single-exponential time upper bound when the input numbers are rational. Our result appears to be the first example of a non-algebraic combinatorial problem which is shown computable. It is also a rare example of transcendental number theory yielding positive computational results.

EXACT GEOMETRIC COMPUTATION USING CASCADING

In this paper we talk about a new efficient numerical approach to deal with inaccuracy when implementing geometric algorithms. Using various floating-point filters together with arbitrary precision packages, we develop an easy-to-use expression compiler called EXPCOMP. EXPCOMP supports all common operations [Formula: see text]. Applying a new semi-static filter, EXPCOMP combines the speed of static filters with the power of dynamic filters. The filter stages deal with all kinds of floating-point exceptions, including underflow. The resulting programs show a very good runtime behaviour.