[comp.graphics] distribution of points on plane/surface

sbj@psuhcx (Sanjay B. Joshi) (02/02/89)

I am looking for any references or pointers on the following problem:

Given N points, how can they be distributed over a given bounded plane/surface
such that the distribution is fairly uniform, and no two points are closer than
a certain given amount.

For example, given a L shaped polygon, how to distribute 50 points on it, such
that no two points are less than delta distance from each other.

thanks,


sanjay.

skinner@saturn.ucsc.edu (Robert Skinner) (02/03/89)

In article <1169@psuhcx.psu.edu>, sbj@psuhcx (Sanjay B. Joshi) writes:
> 
> Given N points, how can they be distributed over a given bounded plane/surface
> such that the distribution is fairly uniform, and no two points are closer than
> a certain given amount.
> 

I have worked on a similar problem:  how to generate variable density
Poisson-disk distributions for planting patterns. I adapted something
that Don Mitchell used for generating Poisson-disk distributions for
ray tracing.  He took a random input source around the value 1/16,
sampled it 16 times the input resolution and dithered it down to one
bit.  The result was about 1 bit generated per image pixel.

You can dither over a rectangle surrounding the surface, and accept
points lying inside the surface.  Pick a sample size so that the 
sample area times density is about 1/16.  The point density is simply 
the number of points divided by the area of the surface.  
This generates nice patterns and isn't too expensive.  (At least its
not iterative.)

I have used it on trianlges with variable density.  Surprisingly, the
points generated were clustered tightly around the high density areas.
(Even more than the variable density would seem to indicate.)
The correct number of points were generated, as measured by the
integral of the density.

References:
Don Mitchell, "Generating Antialiased Images at Low Sampling
Densities", Computer Graphics, v 21, # 4, p 65-72, 1987.

R. W. Floyd, L. Steinberg, "An Adaptive Algorithm for Spatial
Greyscale",  Society for Information Display Symposium Digest, p
36-37,
1975.

good luck,
Robert Skinner
skinner@saturn.ucsc.edu