How to tell if two rings (circles in 3d) are linked - geometry

I have two rings in 3 space each represented by a normal vector, center coordinate, and a radius.
How can I determine if the rings are linked. I.e. a point on one circle lies in the other disk.
This will be implemented in a tight loop so I am concerned about performance. I feel like there should be a closed form solution. So far I've only thought iterative solutions.
Any help?

Outline of the algorithm:
Handle the cases where the planes of the circles are parallel or concurrent.
Find the line of intersection of the planes of the circles.
Find the intersections of the circles with this line.
All the circle intersections with the line are on both planes. We can now do distance checks to see if the circles are linked.
Details:
I'll assume that the circles C1 and C2 are given by a center point (p1, p2), unit normal axis vector (n1, n2) and radii (r1, r2).
If n1 == k n2 for some scalar k, then the planes are parallel or concurrent. If they're concurrent this becomes the trivial 2d problem: check whether dist(p1, p2) < r1+r2.
Otherwise, the planes intersect at a line L. If the circles are linked, then they must both intersect L since linking implies that they mutually pass through each other's plane of definition. This gives you your first trivial rejection test.
L is given by a point q and a vector v. Finding v is easy: It's just the cross product of n1 and n2. q is a little trickier, but we can choose a point of nearest approach of the lines
l1(s) = p1 + s (v X n1)
l2(t) = p2 + t (v X n2)
These lines are perpendicular to v, n1 and n2, and are on the planes of C1 and C2. Their points of nearest approach must be on L.
You can refer to this post to see how to find the points of nearest approach.
Finally, the only way the circles can intersect is if they both have points on L. If they do, then consider the intersection points of C1 and L as they relate to C2. The circles are linked if there are two intersection points q11 and q12 of C1 and L and exactly one of them are inside of C2. Since L is on the plane of C2, this becomes a planar point-in-circle test:
IF dist(p1, q11) < r1 THEN
linked = (dist(p1, q12) > r1)
ELSE
linked = (dist(p1, q11) < r1)
ENDIF
Of course this pseudo-code is a little sloppy about handling the case that the circles actually intersect, but how that should be handled depends on your application.

A straightforward solution that is relatively easy to code: compute the line of intersection of the two planes and rotate and translate everything (in my case the six points defining the two circles) together so that the line becomes the Z axis (x=y=0). Then the planes can be rotated separately around Z so that the first circle, C1, lies on the XZ plane and C2 lies on the YZ plane. Now the centers and radii are easy to find (in my situation I don't initially have them). These rotations do not change the link/no link property and the link or lack of it can be easily determined from the order of the four intersections of the circles with the Z axis. (If either of the circles does not intersect x=y=0, there is no link.) (I may have confused the axes but I think this will work.)
Thank you.

Is this the 3D circle-disk intersection problem? Or, is it the circle-circle intersection problem?
If it's the former, there is a fast, closed form algorithm. First, weed out the circles-too-distant case: dist(CIR1.c, CIR2.c) > CIR1.r + CIR2.r
Handle the edge case: coplanar circles.
Extrude the disk into its plane, then intersect the circle with this plane. If there are 1 or 2 intersection points, test to see if they meet pointInDisk(p, CIR) logic. Report out any surviving intersection points.

A computational geometry textbook might have a good solution!
But I don't have a computation geometry textbook handy at the moment. If I were going to roll my own right now, based on my own (very limited) intuition, I think I'd start with 3d axis-aligned bounding boxes.
e.g., create an "just inside the circle" bounding box, as well as a "just outside the circle" bounding box. I believe it's trivial to figure out if two axis-aligned boxes overlap (section 2.1 of a homework assignment I once did talks about a related problem in the 2D situation --- finding the nearest rectangle to a point: http://juliusdavies.ca/uvic/report.html ).
I suspect the following assertions would hold (but I could be wrong):
If the inner-boxes overlap, then the rings are definitely connected. (I now think this is wrong...)
If the outer-boxes DO NOT overlap, then they are definitely not connected --- I am very confident this assertion holds! :-) :-)
If the outer-boxes overlap, but the inner-boxes do not, then they might be connected.
That's where I'd start, if I were rolling my own.
Conclusion: uhhh, I hope you have better luck with the other answers. :-)

Related

In geometry nodes how can I align instances to both a curve and ground plane?

Given this simple setup:
Node Tree
Viewport Preview
How can I align the planes instances such that the y axis of each plane is parallel to the curve, and the x axis of the planes are parallel to the ground plane (x and Y axis)?
I've tried various combinations with "Align Eular to Vector" node, but as soon as the curve does not face a specific axis the planes get tilted and the alignment to ground plane is lost.
any suggestions?
So after some research I found a solution to my own question. I'm posting it in case anyone else needs to find this out.
Note that I'm not a mathematician and there might be a shorter solution (or specific nodes that I'm not aware of that can perform some of the steps). Also note that this is a solution for instances on a straight line which is what I was aiming for, I didn't test this setup on a curved line but my guess is that it will not work.
For that you'll need to perform step 3 for every point or something like that.
Ok here we go:
Generate instances on a line with the instance on point node.
Auto orient the instances on the z axis with the align Euler to vector node based on the normal of the line.
Calculate a vector between 2 points on the line (which point is not important since the line is straight but the order of the subtraction does!). To calculate the vector from point 1 to point 2 you'll have to subtract point 1 from point 2 (like so: point 2 - point 1).
Calculate the angle between the new vector and the vector of the ground plane [0,0,1]. to do that use this formula:
θ = arccosine ( dot product/ ( length(v1) * length(v2) ) ).
Calculate the complementary angle which is 90 degrees - θ
*** convert 90 to radians of course
rotate the instances on x axis by the result value.
Node Tree
Result
If there is a shorter/easier solution, let me know.

Drawing a star on a sphere

I am trying to draw a star on a sphere. To determine the points belonging to the star I need to count the number of halfspaces that the points on the sphere belong to out of the 5 halfspaces defined by alternating points of the regular pentagon drawn on the x-y plane. My problem is determining the equations of those planes. I know 2 points, 2 alternating points of hexagons: (v0, v2), (v0, v3), (v1, v3), (v1, v4), (v2, v4). Assuming all planes are parallel to the z-axis, it seems to me intuitively this is enough info to find the plane equation, but my math is a little rusty and cannot do it. Appreciate any leads of how to calculate the equations or pointing out the flaw in my assumption...
If you're going to draw a star an a sphere, it will probably look better if the arcs are geodesics. That makes it easier for you, since the planes that define those arcs (by intersecting the sphere) will then all pass through the sphere's center.
Finding those planes is easy, too. You just take the cross product of the vectors from the center to any two points to find the normal. If the sphere's center is at (0,0,0), you don't need anything else.

Calculate equidistant point with minimal distance from 3 points in N-dimensional space

I'm trying to code the Ritter's bounding sphere algorithm in arbitrary dimensions, and I'm stuck on the part of creating a sphere which would have 3 given points on it's edge, or in other words, a sphere which would be defined by 3 points in N-dimensional space.
That sphere's center would be the minimal-distance equidistant point from the (defining) 3 points.
I know how to solve it in 2-D (circumcenter of a triangle defined by 3 points), and I've seen some vector calculations for 3D, but I don't know what the best method would be for N-D, and if it's even possible.
(I'd also appreciate any other advice about the smallest bounding sphere calculations in ND, in case I'm going in the wrong direction.)
so if I get it right:
Wanted point p is intersection between 3 hyper-spheres of the same radius r where the centers of hyper-spheres are your points p0,p1,p2 and radius r is minimum of all possible solutions. In n-D is arbitrary point defined as (x1,x2,x3,...xn)
so solve following equations:
|p-p0|=r
|p-p1|=r
|p-p2|=r
where p,r are unknowns and p0,p1,p2 are knowns. This lead to 3*n equations and n+1 unknowns. So get all the nonzero r solutions and select the minimal. To compute correctly chose some non trivial equation (0=r) from each sphere to form system of n+1 =equations and n+1 unknowns and solve it.
[notes]
To ease up the processing you can have your equations in this form:
(p.xi-p0.xi)^2=r^2
and use sqrt(r^2) only after solution is found (ignoring negative radius).
there is also another simpler approach possible:
You can compute the plane in which the points p0,p1,p2 lies so just find u,v coordinates of these points inside this plane. Then solve your problem in 2D on (u,v) coordinates and after that convert found solution form (u,v) back to your n-D space.
n=(p1-p0)x(p2-p0); // x is cross product
u=(p1-p0); u/=|u|;
v=u x n; v/=|v|; // x is cross product
if memory of mine serves me well then conversion n-D -> u,v is done like this:
P0=(0,0);
P1=(|p1-p0|,0);
P2=(dot(p2-p0,u),dot(p2-p0,v));
where P0,P1,P2 are 2D points in (u,v) coordinate system of the plane corresponding to points p0,p1,p2 in n-D space.
conversion back is done like this:
p=(P.u*u)+(P.v*v);
My Bounding Sphere algorithm only calculates a near-optimal sphere, in 3 dimensions.
Fischer has an exact, minimal bounding hyper-sphere (N dimensions.) See his paper: http://people.inf.ethz.ch/gaertner/texts/own_work/seb.pdf.
His (C++/Java)code: https://github.com/hbf/miniball.
Jack Ritter
jack#houseofwords.com

Collision test between a triangle and a rectangle (AABB) in 2D

I've spent a good amount of time getting intersections working correctly between various 2D shapes (circle-circle, circle-tri, circle-rect, rect-rect - a huge thanks to those who've solved such problems from which I drew my solutions from) for a simple project and am now in the process of trying to implement an triangle-AABB intersection test.
I'm a bit stuck however. I've tried searching online and thinking it through however I've been unable to get any ideas. The thing that's given me the biggest issue at the moment is checking whether the edges of triangle (which is an isosceles btw) intersect the rectangle when no vertexes lie within the rectangle.
Any ideas how I could get this working?
EDIT: To give a bit more insight as to stages as I think they should occur:
1 - Check to see if any vertexes lie with in the rectangle (this part is easy). If yes, collision, otherwise continue.
2 - Check to see if any edges are intersecting the rectangle. This is where I'm stuck. I have little idea how to implement this.
I'd calculate a collection of equations which define the 4 lines of the rectangle, and then solve against a collection of equations which define lines of the triangle.
For example, gievn a rectangle with lowest point (x1, y1) and one side having a gradient of g, one of the lines of the rectangle will be y = gx + y1. Find equations to represent the other 3 sides of the rectangle as well.
The lines which form the sides of the triangle will be calculated similarly. The equation for a line given two points is
y - y1 = (x - x1) * (y2 - y1)/(x2 - x1)
If there are any possible x & y values that satisy all 7 equations then you have an intersection.
edit: I realise that although this is a simple algorithm it might be tricky to code; another option is to calculate formulae for the intervals that form each edge (essentially lines with a min and max value) and solve these.

How do I determine if two convex polygons intersect?

Suppose there are a number of convex polygons on a plane, perhaps a map. These polygons can bump up against each other and share an edge, but cannot overlap.
To test if two polygons P and Q overlap, first I can test each edge in P to see if it intersects with any of the edges in Q. If an intersection is found, I declare that P and Q intersect. If none intersect, I then have to test for the case that P is completely contained by Q, and vice versa. Next, there's the case that P==Q. Finally, there's the case that share a few edges, but not all of them. (These last two cases can probably be thought of as the same general case, but that might not be important.)
I have an algorithm that detects where two line segments intersect. If the two segments are co-linear, they are not considered to intersect for my purposes.
Have I properly enumerated the cases? Any suggestions for testing for these cases?
Note that I'm not looking to find the new convex polygon that is the intersection, I just want to know if an intersection exists. There are many well documented algorithms for finding the intersection, but I don't need to go through all the effort.
You could use this collision algorithm:
To be able to decide whether two convex polygons are intersecting (touching each other) we can use the Separating Axis Theorem. Essentially:
If two convex polygons are not intersecting, there exists a line that passes between them.
Such a line only exists if one of the sides of one of the polygons forms such a line.
The first statement is easy. Since the polygons are both convex, you'll be able to draw a line with one polygon on one side and the other polygon on the other side unless they are intersecting. The second is slightly less intuitive. Look at figure 1. Unless the closest sided of the polygons are parallel to each other, the point where they get closest to each other is the point where a corner of one polygon gets closest to a side of the other polygon. This side will then form a separating axis between the polygons. If the sides are parallel, they both are separating axes.
So how does this concretely help us decide whether polygon A and B intersect? Well, we just go over each side of each polygon and check whether it forms a separating axis. To do this we'll be using some basic vector math to squash all the points of both polygons onto a line that is perpendicular to the potential separating line (see figure 2). Now the whole problem is conveniently 1-dimensional. We can determine a region in which the points for each polygon lie, and this line is a separating axis if these regions do not overlap.
If, after checking each line from both polygons, no separating axis was found, it has been proven that the polygons intersect and something has to be done about it.
There are several ways to detect intersection and / or containment between convex polygons. It all depends on how efficient you want the algorithm to be. Consider two convex polygons R and B with r and b vertices, respectively:
Sweep line based algorithm. As you mentioned you can perform a sweep line procedure and keep the intervals resulting from the intersection of the polygons with the sweeping line. If at any time the intervals overlap, then the polygons intersect. The complexity is O((r + b) log (r + b)) time.
Rotating Callipers based algorithm. See here and here for more details. The complexity is O(r + b) time.
The most efficient methods can be found here and here. These algorithms take O(log r + log b) time.
if the polygons are always convex, first calculate the angle of a line drawn from center to center of the polygons. you can then eliminate needing to test edge segments in the half of the polygon(s) 180 degrees away from the other polygon(s).
to eliminate the edges, Start with the polygon on the left. take the line segment from the center of the polygon that is perpendicular to the line segment from the previous bullet, and touches both sides of the polygon. call this line segment p, with vertexes p1 and p2. Then, for all vertexes if the x coordinate is less than p1.x and p2.x That vertex can go in the "safe bucket".
if it doesn't, you have to check to make sure it is on the "safe" side of the line (just check the y coordinates too)
-if a line segment in the polygon has all vertexes in the "safe bucket" you can ignore it.
-reverse the polarity so you are "right oriented" for the second polygon.
GJK collision detection should work.
Since altCognito already gave you a solution, I'll only point out an excellent book on computational geometry that might interest you.
Your test cases should work, since you're checking the case where the polygons don't intersect at all (completely outside or completely inside), as well as where there is any form of partial intersection (edges intersect always if there is overlap).
For testing, I would just make sure to test every potential combination. The one missing above from what I see is a single edge shared, but one poly contained in the other. I would also add tests for some more complex poly shapes, from tri -> many sided, just as a precaution.
Also, if you had a U shaped poly that completely surrounded the poly, but didn't overlap, I believe your case would handle that, but I would add that as a check, as well.
Here's an idea:
Find the center point of each polygon
Find the two points of each polygon closest to the center point of the other. They will be adjacent points in convex polygons. These define the nearest edge of each polygon, let's call the points {A, B} and {Y, Z}
Find the intersection of lines AB and YZ. If the line segments cross (the intersection on AB lies between A and B), your polygons intersect. If AB and XY are parallel ignore this condition, the next step will trap the problem.
There is one more case you need to check for, which is when the polygons intersect heavily enough that AB and XY are completely past each other and don't actually intersect.
To trap this case, calculate the perpendicular distances of AB and XY to each polygons center points. If either center point is closer to the opposite polygon's line segment your polygon overlap heavily.

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