Exact and efficient evaluation of the InCircle predicate for parametric ellipses and smooth convex objects

Abstract

We study the Voronoi diagram, under the Euclidean metric, of a set of ellipses, given in parametric representation. The article concentrates on the InCircle predicate, which is the hardest to compute, and describes an exact and complete solution. It consists of a customized subdivision-based method that achieves quadratic convergence, leading to a real-time implementation for non-degenerate inputs. Degenerate cases are handled using exact algebraic computation. We conclude with experiments showing that most instances run in less than 0.1 s, on a 2.6 GHz Pentium-4, whereas degenerate cases may take up to 13 s. Our approach readily generalizes to smooth convex objects.