External Memory Computational Geometry Revisited

Abstract

Computational Geometry is an area in Computer Science basically concerned with the design and analysis of algorithms and data structures for problems involving geometric objects. This field started in the 1970’s and has evolved into a discipline reaching out to areas such as Complexity Theory, Discrete and Combinatorial Geometry, or Algorithm Engineering. Geometric problems occur in a variety of applications, e.g., Computer Graphics, Databases, Geosciences, or Medical Imaging, and there are several textbooks presenting (internal memory) geometric algorithms [239], [275], [342], [541], [566], [596], [614], [647]. The systematic investigation of geometric algorithms specifically designed for massive data sets started in the early 1990’s, most noticeably after Goodrich et al. presented their pioneering paper “External Memory Computational Geometry” [345].

Part of this work was done while on leave at the University for Health Informatics and Technology Tyrol, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.