895 research outputs found
Preventing Location-Based Identity Inference in Anonymous Spatial Queries
The increasing trend of embedding positioning capabilities (for example, GPS) in mobile devices facilitates the widespread use of Location-Based Services. For such applications to succeed, privacy and confidentiality are essential. Existing privacy-enhancing techniques rely on encryption to safeguard communication channels, and on pseudonyms to protect user identities. Nevertheless, the query contents may disclose the physical location of the user. In this paper, we present a framework for preventing location-based identity inference of users who issue spatial queries to Location-Based Services. We propose transformations based on the well-established K-anonymity concept to compute exact answers for range and nearest neighbor search, without revealing the query source. Our methods optimize the entire process of anonymizing the requests and processing the transformed spatial queries. Extensive experimental studies suggest that the proposed techniques are applicable to real-life scenarios with numerous mobile users
Searching edges in the overlap of two plane graphs
Consider a pair of plane straight-line graphs, whose edges are colored red
and blue, respectively, and let n be the total complexity of both graphs. We
present a O(n log n)-time O(n)-space technique to preprocess such pair of
graphs, that enables efficient searches among the red-blue intersections along
edges of one of the graphs. Our technique has a number of applications to
geometric problems. This includes: (1) a solution to the batched red-blue
search problem [Dehne et al. 2006] in O(n log n) queries to the oracle; (2) an
algorithm to compute the maximum vertical distance between a pair of 3D
polyhedral terrains one of which is convex in O(n log n) time, where n is the
total complexity of both terrains; (3) an algorithm to construct the Hausdorff
Voronoi diagram of a family of point clusters in the plane in O((n+m) log^3 n)
time and O(n+m) space, where n is the total number of points in all clusters
and m is the number of crossings between all clusters; (4) an algorithm to
construct the farthest-color Voronoi diagram of the corners of n axis-aligned
rectangles in O(n log^2 n) time; (5) an algorithm to solve the stabbing circle
problem for n parallel line segments in the plane in optimal O(n log n) time.
All these results are new or improve on the best known algorithms.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure
A Parallel Distributed Strategy for Arraying a Scattered Robot Swarm
We consider the problem of organizing a scattered group of robots in
two-dimensional space, with geometric maximum distance between robots. The
communication graph of the swarm is connected, but there is no central
authority for organizing it. We want to arrange them into a sorted and
equally-spaced array between the robots with lowest and highest label, while
maintaining a connected communication network.
In this paper, we describe a distributed method to accomplish these goals,
without using central control, while also keeping time, travel distance and
communication cost at a minimum. We proceed in a number of stages (leader
election, initial path construction, subtree contraction, geometric
straightening, and distributed sorting), none of which requires a central
authority, but still accomplishes best possible parallelization. The overall
arraying is performed in time, individual messages, and
travel distance. Implementation of the sorting and navigation use communication
messages of fixed size, and are a practical solution for large populations of
low-cost robots
Farthest-Polygon Voronoi Diagrams
Given a family of k disjoint connected polygonal sites in general position
and of total complexity n, we consider the farthest-site Voronoi diagram of
these sites, where the distance to a site is the distance to a closest point on
it. We show that the complexity of this diagram is O(n), and give an O(n log^3
n) time algorithm to compute it. We also prove a number of structural
properties of this diagram. In particular, a Voronoi region may consist of k-1
connected components, but if one component is bounded, then it is equal to the
entire region
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Dynamic ham-sandwich cuts in the plane
We design efficient data structures for dynamically maintaining a ham-sandwich cut of two point sets in the plane subject to insertions and deletions of points in either set. A ham-sandwich cut is a line that simultaneously bisects the cardinality of both point sets. For general point sets, our first data structure supports each operation in O(n1/3+ε) amortized time and O(n4/3+ε) space. Our second data structure performs faster when each point set decomposes into a small number k of subsets in convex position: it supports insertions and deletions in O(logn) time and ham-sandwich queries in O(klog4n) time. In addition, if each point set has convex peeling depth k , then we can maintain the decomposition automatically using O(klogn) time per insertion and deletion. Alternatively, we can view each convex point set as a convex polygon, and we show how to find a ham-sandwich cut that bisects the total areas or total perimeters of these polygons in O(klog4n) time plus the O((kb)polylog(kb)) time required to approximate the root of a polynomial of degree O(k) up to b bits of precision. We also show how to maintain a partition of the plane by two lines into four regions each containing a quarter of the total point count, area, or perimeter in polylogarithmic time.Engineering and Applied Science
Spanning Properties of Theta-Theta Graphs
We study the spanning properties of Theta-Theta graphs. Similar in spirit
with the Yao-Yao graphs, Theta-Theta graphs partition the space around each
vertex into a set of k cones, for some fixed integer k > 1, and select at most
one edge per cone. The difference is in the way edges are selected. Yao-Yao
graphs select an edge of minimum length, whereas Theta-Theta graphs select an
edge of minimum orthogonal projection onto the cone bisector. It has been
established that the Yao-Yao graphs with parameter k = 6k' have spanning ratio
11.67, for k' >= 6. In this paper we establish a first spanning ratio of
for Theta-Theta graphs, for the same values of . We also extend the class of
Theta-Theta spanners with parameter 6k', and establish a spanning ratio of
for k' >= 5. We surmise that these stronger results are mainly due to a
tighter analysis in this paper, rather than Theta-Theta being superior to
Yao-Yao as a spanner. We also show that the spanning ratio of Theta-Theta
graphs decreases to 4.64 as k' increases to 8. These are the first results on
the spanning properties of Theta-Theta graphs.Comment: 20 pages, 6 figures, 3 table
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