Related papers: How big a table do you need for your jigsaw puzzle…
We show that deciding whether a given set of circles can be packed into a rectangle, an equilateral triangle, or a unit square are NP-hard problems, settling the complexity of these natural packing problems. On the positive side, we show…
Jigsaw puzzle solving, the problem of constructing a coherent whole from a set of non-overlapping unordered visual fragments, is fundamental to numerous applications, and yet most of the literature of the last two decades has focused thus…
Automatic chess problem or puzzle composition typically involves generating and testing various different positions, sometimes using particular piece sets. Once a position has been generated, it is then usually tested for positional…
Jigsaw puzzle solving requires the rearrangement of unordered pieces into their original pose in order to reconstruct a coherent whole, often an image, and is known to be an intractable problem. While the possible impact of automatic puzzle…
Let $S$ be a set of $n$ points in the unit square $[0,1]^2$, one of which is the origin. We construct $n$ pairwise interior-disjoint axis-aligned empty rectangles such that the lower left corner of each rectangle is a point in $S$, and the…
Moser asked whether the collection of rectangles of dimensions 1 x 1/2, 1/2 x 1/3, 1/3 x 1/4, ..., whose total area equals 1, can be packed into the unit square without overlap, and whether the collection of squares of side lengths 1/2,…
In their 2009 note: \emph{Packing equal squares into a large square}, Chung and Graham proved that the uncovered area of a large square of side length $x$ is $O\left(x^{(3+\sqrt{2})/7}\log x\right)$ after maximum number of non-overlapping…
This paper introduces the first deep neural network-based estimation metric for the jigsaw puzzle problem. Given two puzzle piece edges, the neural network predicts whether or not they should be adjacent in the correct assembly of the…
A random jigsaw puzzle is constructed by arranging $n^2$ square pieces into an $n \times n$ grid and assigning to each edge of a piece one of $q$ available colours uniformly at random, with the restriction that touching edges receive the…
We study dense packings of a large number of congruent non-overlapping circles inside a square by looking for configurations which maximize the packing density, defined as the ratio between the area occupied by the disks and the area of the…
We prove the computational intractability of rotating and placing $n$ square tiles into a $1 \times n$ array such that adjacent tiles are compatible--either equal edge colors, as in edge-matching puzzles, or matching tab/pocket shapes, as…
Given a point set $S=\{s_1,\ldots , s_n\}$ in the unit square $U=[0,1]^2$, an anchored square packing is a set of $n$ interior-disjoint empty squares in $U$ such that $s_i$ is a corner of the $i$th square. The reach $R(S)$ of $S$ is the set…
We consider generalizations of the familiar fifteen-piece sliding puzzle on the 4 by 4 square grid. On larger grids with more pieces and more holes, asymptotically how fast can we move the puzzle into the solved state? We also give a…
We study the puzzle graphs of hexagonal sliding puzzles of various shapes and with various numbers of holes. The puzzle graph is a combinatorial model which captures the solvability and the complexity of sequential mechanical puzzles.…
Recall the classical 15-puzzle, consisting of 15 sliding blocks in a $4\times 4$ grid. Famously, the configuration space of this puzzle consists of two connected components, corresponding to the odd and even permutations of the symmetric…
We present a method for the automatic assembly of apictorial jigsaw puzzles. This method relies on integral area invariants for shape matching and an optimization process to aggregate shape matches into a final puzzle assembly. Assumptions…
We study the complexity of symmetric assembly puzzles: given a collection of simple polygons, can we translate, rotate, and possibly flip them so that their interior-disjoint union is line symmetric? On the negative side, we show that the…
In this paper we give a mathematical model for a game that we call picture cube puzzle and investigate its properties. The central question is the number of moves required to solve the puzzle. A mathematical discussion is followed by the…
This article is a gentle introduction to the mathematical area known as circle packing, the study of the kinds of patterns that can be formed by configurations of non-overlapping circles. The first half of the article is an exposition of…
Over the last decade, Sudoku, a combinatorial number-placement puzzle, has become a favorite pastimes of many all around the world. In this puzzle, the task is to complete a partially filled $9 \times 9$ square with numbers 1 through 9,…