[PLUG] Learning Co-op

Russell Senior seniorr at aracnet.com
Wed Aug 7 16:06:39 UTC 2002


>>>>> "Tyler" == Tyler F Creelan <creelan at engr.orst.edu> writes:

Russell> I did some thinking about an ultimately unfunded problem of
Russell> rapidly computing distance to nearest surface of a set of
Russell> arbitrary scaled/translated geometric primitives (at
Russell> successive steps of a random walk).  If anyone has any
Russell> particular insight into efficient solutions, I am all ears.

Tyler> I understand this can already be solved in O(n) or O(log n)
Tyler> time. What level of improvement would your solution represent?

Sorry that I wasn't more clear.  I didn't _have_ a solution per se, I
was looking for a solution for a particular application.  If you've
got pointers, I'd love to hear about them.  I am also interested in
solutions to the related but more complex problem of computing nearest
distance to the surface of shapes defined in a constructive solid
geometry (e.g. ellipsoid with an off-center cylinder removed).  There
seems to be a lot of literature on drawing such shapes, ray tracing
and the like, but a lot less on the nearest-distance computation.  At
least, I had trouble finding much that I understood enough to tell if
it was applicable.


-- 
Russell Senior         ``The two chiefs turned to each other.        
seniorr at aracnet.com      Bellison uncorked a flood of horrible       
                         profanity, which, translated meant, `This is
                         extremely unusual.' ''                      




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