This introduction to computational geometry focuses on algorithms. Motivation is provided from the application areas as all techniques are related to particular applications in robotics, graphics, CAD/CAM, and geographic information systems. Modern insights in computational geometry are used to provide solutions that are both efficient and easy to understand and implement.
Beauty is the first test. This is a very beautiful book (form) with a beautiful contents. The book explains in a very throrough way some of the fundamental algoritms in "computational geometry". You will learn how to compute a convex hull for a set of points, how to determine which line segments cross in a set of line segments, how to efficiently determine which part of a set of polygons is clicked, how to compute a voronoi diagram etc... The authors take their time to explain why some algorithm is chosen and explain it with very clear and beautiful diagrams. This is a standard for all algorithmic books to come.
It's a great text book, but asking me if I liked reading it is like asking a typical kid if they particularly enjoy eating broccoli.
The Algorithms are laid out rather well, though I did need a professor to walk me through some of them. The algorithms as written didn't quite meet my way of thinking, and so I am giving it 3 stars (-1 for me not enjoying the dry read, and -1 for needing someone to clarify).
Computational geometry is really a neat subject; the problems and the algorithms on how to solve them can almost without exceptions be presented with some figure or drawing. This should definitely not be underestimated and this book uses this fact to a great deal. For the same reason, the algorithms and the problems just does not seem that complicated. You read the text or the pseudocode and think 'what is going on here?', and then you look at the figure illustrating the procedure and suddenly you got it. Amazing. I read the chapters on Convex Hulls, Range search, Point location, Voronoi diagrams, Delaunay triangulation, Motion planning, Visibility graphs, Geometric data structures and Polygon triangulation in great detail. The rest I looked at, but nowhere near the same amount of time. Definitely one of the best books on algorithms I have read.
I haven't quite finished reviewing this book. There is a lot of substance here- what happens where you ask, how to bridge the gap between algorithms and geometry? Perhaps, this isn't as general as topology, and there is a fair deal more investigation that needs to take place. Much is unknown about this field. Beautiful book! Recommended.
This book is fantastic! I am telling this after reading 14 chapters of it. It can take from a month to even 6 8 months to read those 14 chapters. If you just read to get used to the concepts for application purposes, then it should not take much time and effort! But if you want to read it in such a way that you get all the theoretical aspects of it, the time can be extended, for me it took 8 months to read 14 chapters. There are also a vast variety of exercises included. In the exercises, you might need to read even two to three papers, so you would be able to solve it. The exercises, in my opinion, are based on fresh results or deeper material that were not included in the book to keep it thin!