We investigate ways in which an algorithm can improve its expected performance by finetuning itself automatically with respect to an arbitrary, unknown input distribution. We give such self-improving algorithms for sorting and computing Delaunay triangulations. The highlights of this work: (i) an algorithm to sort a list of numbers with optimal expected limiting complexity; and (ii) an algorithm to compute the Delaunay triangulation of a set of points with optimal expected limiting complexity. In both cases, the algorithm begins with a training phase during which it adjusts itself to the input distribution, followed by a stationary regime in which the algorithm settles to its optimized incarnation. 1

Abstract Given a planar polygonal subdivision S, point location involves preprocessing this subdivisioninto a data structure so that given any query point q, the cell of the subdivision containing qcan be determined efficiently. Suppose that for each cell z in the subdivision, the probability pz that a query point lies within this cell is also given. The goal is to design the data structureto minimize the average search time. This problem has been considered before, but existing

... in 2-d and 3-d, and off-line point location in 2-d. We prove the existence of an algorithm A for computing 2-d or 3-d convex hulls that is optimal for every point set in the following sense: for every set S of n points and for every algorithm A ′ in a certain class A, the maximum running time of A on input 〈s1,..., sn〉 is at most a constant factor times the maximum running time of A ′ on 〈s1,..., sn〉, where the maximum is taken over all permutations 〈s1,..., sn 〉 of S. In fact, we can establish a stronger property: for every S and A ′ , the maximum running time of A is at most a constant factor times the average running time of A ′ over all permutations of S. We call algorithms satisfying these properties instance-optimal in the order-oblivious and random-order setting. Such instance-optimal algorithms simultaneously subsume output-sensitive algorithms and distribution-dependent average-case algorithms, and all algorithms that do not take advantage of the order of the input or that assume the input is given in a random order. The class A under consideration consists of all algorithms in a decision tree model where the tests involve only multilinear functions with a constant number of arguments. To establish an instance-specific lower bound, we deviate from traditional Ben–Or-style proofs and adopt an interesting adversary argument. For 2-d convex hulls, we prove that a version of the well known algorithm by Kirkpatrick and Seidel (1986) or Chan, Snoeyink, and Yap (1995) already attains this lower bound. For 3-d convex hulls, we propose a new algorithm. To demonstrate the potential of the concept, we further obtain instance-optimal results for a few other standard problems in computational geometry, such as maxima in 2-d and 3-d, orthogonal line segment intersection in 2-d, finding bichromatic L∞-close pairs in 2-d, off-line orthogonal range searching in 2-d, off-line dominance reporting in 2-d and 3-d, off-line halfspace range reporting 1.

Point location is the problem of preprocessing a planar polygonal subdivision S into a data structure in order to determine efficiently the cell of the subdivision that contains a given query point. Given the probabilities pz that the query point lies within each cell z 2 S, a natural question is how to design such a structure so as to minimize the expected-case query time. The entropy H of the probability distribution is the dominant term in the lower bound on the expected-case search time. Clearly the number of edges n of the subdivision is a lower bound on the space required. There is no known approach that simultaneously achieves the goals of H + o(H) query time and O(n) space. In this paper we introduce entropy-preserving cuttings and show how to use them to achieve query time H+o(H), using only O(n log n) space. 1 Introduction Planar point location is an important problem in computational geometry. We are given a polygonal subdivision S consisting of n edges, and the goal is ...

We propose to design data structures called succinct geometric indexes of negligible space (more precisely, o(n) bits) that support geometric queries in optimal time, by taking advantage of the n points in the data set permuted and stored elsewhere as a sequence. Our first and main result is a succinct geometric index that can answer point location queries, a fundamental problem in computational geometry, on planar triangulations in O(lg n) time1. We also design three variants of this index. The first supports point location using lg n +2 √ lg n + O(lg 1/4 n) point-line comparisons. The second supports point location in o(lg n) time when the coordinates are integers bounded by U. The last variant can answer point location queries in O(H +1) expected time, where H is the entropy of the query distribution. These results match the query efficiency of previous point location structures that occupy O(n) words or O(n lg n) bits, while saving drastic amounts of space. We generalize our succinct geometric index to planar subdivisions, and design indexes for other types of queries. Finally, we apply our techniques to design the first implicit data structures that support point location in O(lg² n) time.

A data structure is presented for point location in convex planar subdivisions when the distribution of queries is known in advance. The data structure has an expected query time that is within a constant factor of optimal.

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A binary space partition tree is a data structure for the representation of a set of objectsin space. It found an increasing number of applications over the last decades. In recent years, intensifying research focused on its combinatorial properties, which affect directly the efficiency of applications. Important advances were made on binary space partitions for disjoint line segments in the plane and for axis-aligned objects in higher dimensions. New research directions were also initiated on some realistic polygonal scenes and on kinetic binary space partitions. This paper attempts to give an overview of these results and reiterates some of the most pressing open problems.

A data structure is presented for point location in connected planar subdivisions when the distribution of queries is known in advance. The data structure has an expected query time that is within a constant factor of optimal. More specifically, an algorithm is presented that preprocesses a connected planar subdivision G of size n and a query distribution D to produce a point location data structure for G. The expected number of point-line comparisons performed by this data structure, when the queries are distributed according to D, is ˜ H + O ( ˜ H2/3 + 1) where ˜ H = ˜ H(G, D) is a lower bound on the expected number of point-line comparisons performed by any linear decision tree for point location in G under the query distribution D. The preprocessing algorithm runs in O(n log n) time and produces a data structure of size O(n). These results are obtained by creating a Steiner triangulation of G that has near-minimum entropy.

Over the last decade, there have been several data structures that, given a planar subdivision and a probability distribution over the plane, provide a way for answering point location queries that is fine-tuned for the distribution. All these methods suffer from the requirement that the query distribution must be known in advance. We present a new data structure for point location queries in planar triangulations. Our structure is asymptotically as fast as the optimal structures, but it requires no prior information about the queries. This is a 2-d analogue of the jump from Knuth’s optimum binary search trees (discovered in 1971) to the splay trees of Sleator and Tarjan in 1985. While the former need to know the query distribution, the latter are statically optimal. This means that we can adapt to the query sequence and achieve the same asymptotic performance as an optimum static structure, without needing any additional information. 1