English

Line Aspect Ratio

Computational Geometry 2025-06-26 v1

Abstract

We address the problem of covering a target segment uv\overline{uv} using a finite set of guards S\mathcal{S} placed on a source segment xy\overline{xy} within a simple polygon P\mathcal{P}, assuming weak visibility between the target and source. Without geometric constraints, S\mathcal{S} may be infinite, as shown by prior hardness results. To overcome this, we introduce the {\it line aspect ratio} (AR), defined as the ratio of the \emph{long width} (LW) to the \emph{short width} (SW) of P\mathcal{P}. These widths are determined by parallel lines tangent to convex vertices outside P\mathcal{P} (LW) and reflex vertices inside P\mathcal{P} (SW), respectively. Under the assumption that AR is constant or polynomial in nn (the polygon's complexity), we prove that a finite guard set S\mathcal{S} always exists, with size bounded by O(AR)\mathcal{O}(\text{AR}). This AR-based framework generalizes some previous assumptions, encompassing a broader class of polygons. Our result establishes a framework guaranteeing finite solutions for segment guarding under practical and intuitive geometric constraints.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.20508,
  title  = {Line Aspect Ratio},
  author = {Arash Vaezi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.20508},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:33:09.831Z