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Documents authored by Robson, Eliot W.

Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.20
Polynomial-Time Algorithms for Contiguous Art Gallery and Related Problems

Authors: Ahmad Biniaz, Anil Maheshwari, Magnus Christian Ring Merrild, Joseph S. B. Mitchell, Saeed Odak, Valentin Polishchuk, Eliot W. Robson, Casper Moldrup Rysgaard, Jens Kristian Refsgaard Schou, Thomas Shermer, Jack Spalding-Jamieson, Rolf Svenning, and Da Wei Zheng

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
We introduce the contiguous art gallery problem which is to guard the boundary of a simple polygon with a minimum number of guards such that each guard covers exactly one contiguous portion of the boundary. Art gallery problems are often NP-hard. In particular, it is NP-hard to minimize the number of guards to see the boundary of a simple polygon, without the contiguity constraint. This paper is a merge of three concurrent works [Ahmad Biniaz et al., 2024; Magnus Christian Ring Merrild et al., 2024; Eliot W. Robson et al., 2024] each showing that (surprisingly) the contiguous art gallery problem is solvable in polynomial time. The common idea of all three approaches is developing a greedy function that maps a point on the boundary to the furthest point on the boundary so that the contiguous interval along the boundary between them could be guarded by one guard. Repeatedly applying this function immediately leads to an OPT+1 approximation. By studying this greedy algorithm, we present three different approaches that achieve an optimal solution. The first and second approach apply this greedy algorithm from different points on the boundary that could be found in advance or on the fly while traversing along the boundary (respectively). The third approach represents this function as a piecewise linear rational function, which can be reduced to an abstract arc cover problem involving infinite families of arcs. We identify other problems that can be represented by similar functions, and solve them via the third approach. From the combinatorial point of view, we show that any n-vertex polygon can be guarded by at most ⌊(n-2)/2⌋ guards. This bound is tight because there are polygons that require this many guards.
Cite as

Ahmad Biniaz, Anil Maheshwari, Magnus Christian Ring Merrild, Joseph S. B. Mitchell, Saeed Odak, Valentin Polishchuk, Eliot W. Robson, Casper Moldrup Rysgaard, Jens Kristian Refsgaard Schou, Thomas Shermer, Jack Spalding-Jamieson, Rolf Svenning, and Da Wei Zheng. Polynomial-Time Algorithms for Contiguous Art Gallery and Related Problems. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 20:1-20:21, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{biniaz_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.20,
  author =	{Biniaz, Ahmad and Maheshwari, Anil and Merrild, Magnus Christian Ring and Mitchell, Joseph S. B. and Odak, Saeed and Polishchuk, Valentin and Robson, Eliot W. and Rysgaard, Casper Moldrup and Schou, Jens Kristian Refsgaard and Shermer, Thomas and Spalding-Jamieson, Jack and Svenning, Rolf and Zheng, Da Wei},
  title =	{{Polynomial-Time Algorithms for Contiguous Art Gallery and Related Problems}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{20:1--20:21},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-370-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{332},
  editor =	{Aichholzer, Oswin and Wang, Haitao},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.20},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231720},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.20},
  annote =	{Keywords: Art Gallery Problem, Computational Geometry, Combinatorics, Discrete Algorithms}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.54
The Fréchet Distance Unleashed: Approximating a Dog with a Frog

Authors: Sariel Har-Peled, Benjamin Raichel, and Eliot W. Robson

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 332, 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)

Abstract
We show that a variant of the continuous Fréchet distance between polygonal curves can be computed using essentially the same algorithm used to solve the discrete version. The new variant is not necessarily monotone, but this shortcoming can be easily handled via refinement. Combined with a Dijkstra/Prim type algorithm, this leads to a realization of the Fréchet distance (i.e., a morphing) that is locally optimal (aka locally correct), that is both easy to compute, and in practice, takes near linear time on many inputs. The new morphing has the property that the leash is always as short as possible. These matchings/morphings are more natural, and are better than the ones computed by standard algorithms - in particular, they handle noise more graciously. This should make the Fréchet distance more useful for real world applications. We implemented the new algorithm, and various strategies to obtain fast practical performance. We performed extensive experiments with our new algorithm, and released publicly available (and easily installable and usable) Julia and Python packages. In particular, the Julia implementation, for computing the regular Fréchet distance, seems to be {significantly faster} than other currently available implementations. See Table 2.2. Our algorithms can be used to compute the almost-exact Fréchet distance between polygonal curves. Implementations and numerous examples are available here: https://frechet.xyz.
Cite as

Sariel Har-Peled, Benjamin Raichel, and Eliot W. Robson. The Fréchet Distance Unleashed: Approximating a Dog with a Frog. In 41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 332, pp. 54:1-54:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{harpeled_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.54,
  author =	{Har-Peled, Sariel and Raichel, Benjamin and Robson, Eliot W.},
  title =	{{The Fr\'{e}chet Distance Unleashed: Approximating a Dog with a Frog}},
  booktitle =	{41st International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2025)},
  pages =	{54:1--54:13},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-370-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{332},
  editor =	{Aichholzer, Oswin and Wang, Haitao},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.54},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-232066},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2025.54},
  annote =	{Keywords: Curve similarity, Fr\'{e}chet distance}
}
Document
DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2024.26
No-Dimensional Tverberg Partitions Revisited

Authors: Sariel Har-Peled and Eliot W. Robson

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 294, 19th Scandinavian Symposium and Workshops on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2024)

Abstract
Given a set P ⊂ ℝ^d of n points, with diameter Δ, and a parameter δ ∈ (0,1), it is known that there is a partition of P into sets P_1, …, P_t, each of size O(1/δ²), such that their convex hulls all intersect a common ball of radius δΔ. We prove that a random partition, with a simple alteration step, yields the desired partition, resulting in a (randomized) linear time algorithm (i.e., O(dn)). We also provide a deterministic algorithm with running time O(dn log n). Previous proofs were either existential (i.e., at least exponential time), or required much bigger sets. In addition, the algorithm and its proof of correctness are significantly simpler than previous work, and the constants are slightly better. We also include a number of applications and extensions using the same central ideas. For example, we provide a linear time algorithm for computing a "fuzzy" centerpoint, and prove a no-dimensional weak ε-net theorem with an improved constant.
Cite as

Sariel Har-Peled and Eliot W. Robson. No-Dimensional Tverberg Partitions Revisited. In 19th Scandinavian Symposium and Workshops on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2024). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 294, pp. 26:1-26:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{harpeled_et_al:LIPIcs.SWAT.2024.26,
  author =	{Har-Peled, Sariel and Robson, Eliot W.},
  title =	{{No-Dimensional Tverberg Partitions Revisited}},
  booktitle =	{19th Scandinavian Symposium and Workshops on Algorithm Theory (SWAT 2024)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-318-8},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{294},
  editor =	{Bodlaender, Hans L.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2024.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-200664},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SWAT.2024.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: Points, partitions, convex hull, high dimension}
}
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