What is an Efficient algorithm to find Area of Overlapping Rectangles
Solution 1
An efficient way of computing this area is to use a sweep algorithm. Let us assume that we sweep a vertical line L(x) through the union of rectangles U:
- first of all, you need to build an event queue Q, which is, in this case, the ordered list of all x-coordinates (left and right) of the rectangles.
- during the sweep, you should maintain a 1D datastructure, which should give you the total length of the intersection of L(x) and U. The important thing is that this length is constant between two consecutive events q and q' of Q. So, if l(q) denotes the total length of L(q+) (i.e. L just on the rightside of q) intersected with U, the area swept by L between events q and q' is exactly l(q)*(q' - q).
- you just have to sum up all these swept areas to get the total one.
We still have to solve the 1D problem. You want a 1D structure, which computes dynamically a union of (vertical) segments. By dynamically, I mean that you sometimes add a new segment, and sometimes remove one.
I already detailed in my answer to this collapsing ranges question how to do it in a static way (which is in fact a 1D sweep). So if you want something simple, you can directly apply that (by recomputing the union for each event). If you want something more efficient, you just need to adapt it a bit:
- assuming that you know the union of segments S1...Sn consists of disjoints segments D1...Dk. Adding Sn+1 is very easy, you just have to locate both ends of Sn+1 amongs the ends of D1...Dk.
- assuming that you know the union of segments S1...Sn consists of disjoints segments D1...Dk, removing segment Si (assuming that Si was included in Dj) means recomputing the union of segments that Dj consisted of, except Si (using the static algorithm).
This is your dynamic algorithm. Assuming that you will use sorted sets with log-time location queries to represent D1...Dk, this is probably the most efficient non-specialized method you can get.
Solution 2
One way-out approach is to plot it to a canvas! Draw each rectangle using a semi-transparent colour. The .NET runtime will be doing the drawing in optimised, native code - or even using a hardware accelerator.
Then, you have to read-back the pixels. Is each pixel the background colour, the rectangle colour, or another colour? The only way it can be another colour is if two or more rectangles overlapped...
If this is too much of a cheat, I'd recommend the quad-tree as another answerer did, or the r-tree.
Solution 3
The simplest solution
import numpy as np
A = np.zeros((100, 100))
B = np.zeros((100, 100))
A[rect1.top : rect1.bottom, rect1.left : rect1.right] = 1
B[rect2.top : rect2.bottom, rect2.left : rect2.right] = 1
area_of_union = np.sum((A + B) > 0)
area_of_intersect = np.sum((A + B) > 1)
In this example, we create two zero-matrices that are the size of the canvas. For each rectangle, fill one of these matrices with ones where the rectangle takes up space. Then sum the matrices. Now sum(A+B > 0) is the area of the union, and sum(A+B > 1) is the area of the overlap. This example can easily generalize to multiple rectangles.
Solution 4
This is some quick and dirty code that I used in the TopCoder SRM 160 Div 2.
t = top
b = botttom
l = left
r = right
public class Rect
{
public int t, b, l, r;
public Rect(int _l, int _b, int _r, int _t)
{
t = _t;
b = _b;
l = _l;
r = _r;
}
public bool Intersects(Rect R)
{
return !(l > R.r || R.l > r || R.b > t || b > R.t);
}
public Rect Intersection(Rect R)
{
if(!this.Intersects(R))
return new Rect(0,0,0,0);
int [] horiz = {l, r, R.l, R.r};
Array.Sort(horiz);
int [] vert = {b, t, R.b, R.t};
Array.Sort(vert);
return new Rect(horiz[1], vert[1], horiz[2], vert[2]);
}
public int Area()
{
return (t - b)*(r-l);
}
public override string ToString()
{
return l + " " + b + " " + r + " " + t;
}
}
Solution 5
Here's something that off the top of my head sounds like it might work:
Create a dictionary with a double key, and a list of rectangle+boolean values, like this:
Dictionary< Double, List< KeyValuePair< Rectangle, Boolean>>> rectangles;
For each rectangle in your set, find the corresponding list for the x0 and the x1 values, and add the rectangle to that list, with a boolean value of true for x0, and false for x1. This way you now have a complete list of all the x-coordinates that each rectangle either enters (true) or leaves (false) the x-direction
Grab all the keys from that dictionary (all the distinct x-coordinates), sort them, and loop through them in order, make sure you can get at both the current x-value, and the next one as well (you need them both). This gives you individual strips of rectangles
- Maintain a set of rectangles you're currently looking at, which starts out empty. For each x-value you iterate over in point 3, if the rectangle is registered with a true value, add it to the set, otherwise remove it.
- For a strip, sort the rectangles by their y-coordinate
- Loop through the rectangles in the strip, counting overlapping distances (unclear to me as of yet how to do this efficiently)
- Calculate width of strip times height of overlapping distances to get areas
Example, 5 rectangles, draw on top of each other, from a to e:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
aaaaaaaadddddddddddddddddddddddddddddbbbbbb
aaaaaaaadddddddddddddddddddddddddddddbbbbbb
ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
ddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
ddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
ddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
ccccccccddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
ccccccccddddddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
cccccccccccc eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
cccccccccccc eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
cccccccccccc
cccccccccccc
Here's the list of x-coordinates:
v v v v v v v v v
|aaaaaaa|aa|aaaa | bbbbbbbbbb|bb|bbb
|aaaaaaa|aa|aaaa | bbbbbbbbbb|bb|bbb
|aaaaaaa|aa|aaaa | bbbbbbbbbb|bb|bbb
|aaaaaaa|aa|aaaa | bbbbbbbbbb|bb|bbb
|aaaaaaaddd|dddddddddd|ddddddddddddddbb|bbb
|aaaaaaaddd|dddddddddd|ddddddddddddddbb|bbb
| ddd|dddddddddd|dddddddddddddd |
| ddd|dddddddddd|dddddddddddddd |
| ddd|ddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
| ddd|ddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
| ddd|ddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
ccccccccddd|ddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
ccccccccddd|ddddddddddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
cccccccccccc eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
cccccccccccc eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
cccccccccccc
cccccccccccc
The list would be (where each v is simply given a coordinate starting at 0 and going up):
0: +a, +c
1: +d
2: -c
3: -a
4: +e
5: +b
6: -d
7: -e
8: -b
Each strip would thus be (rectangles sorted from top to bottom):
0-1: a, c
1-2: a, d, c
2-3: a, d
3-4: d
4-5: d, e
5-6: b, d, e
6-7: b, e
7-8: b
for each strip, the overlap would be:
0-1: none
1-2: a/d, d/c
2-3: a/d
3-4: none
4-5: d/e
5-6: b/d, d/e
6-7: none
7-8: none
I'd imagine that a variation of the sort + enter/leave algorithm for the top-bottom check would be doable as well:
- sort the rectangles we're currently analyzing in the strip, top to bottom, for rectangles with the same top-coordinate, sort them by bottom coordinate as well
- iterate through the y-coordinates, and when you enter a rectangle, add it to the set, when you leave a rectangle, remove it from the set
- whenever the set has more than one rectangle, you have overlap (and if you make sure to add/remove all rectangles that have the same top/bottom coordinate you're currently looking at, multiple overlapping rectangles would not be a problem
For the 1-2 strip above, you would iterate like this:
0. empty set, zero sum
1. enter a, add a to set (1 rectangle in set)
2. enter d, add d to set (>1 rectangles in set = overlap, store this y-coordinate)
3. leave a, remove a from set (now back from >1 rectangles in set, add to sum: y - stored_y
4. enter c, add c to set (>1 rectangles in set = overlap, store this y-coordinate)
5. leave d, remove d from set (now back from >1 rectangles in set, add to sum: y - stored_y)
6. multiply sum with width of strip to get overlapping areas
You would not actually have to maintain an actual set here either, just the count of the rectangles you're inside, whenever this goes from 1 to 2, store the y, and whenever it goes from 2 down to 1, calculate current y - stored y, and sum this difference.
Hope this was understandable, and as I said, this is off the top of my head, not tested in any way.
namenlos
Updated on July 09, 2022Comments
-
namenlos almost 2 years
My situation
- Input: a set of rectangles
- each rect is comprised of 4 doubles like this: (x0,y0,x1,y1)
- they are not "rotated" at any angle, all they are "normal" rectangles that go "up/down" and "left/right" with respect to the screen
- they are randomly placed - they may be touching at the edges, overlapping , or not have any contact
- I will have several hundred rectangles
- this is implemented in C#
I need to find
- The area that is formed by their overlap - all the area in the canvas that more than one rectangle "covers" (for example with two rectangles, it would be the intersection)
- I don't need the geometry of the overlap - just the area (example: 4 sq inches)
- Overlaps shouldn't be counted multiple times - so for example imagine 3 rects that have the same size and position - they are right on top of each other - this area should be counted once (not three times)
Example
- The image below contains thre rectangles: A,B,C
- A and B overlap (as indicated by dashes)
- B and C overlap (as indicated by dashes)
- What I am looking for is the area where the dashes are shown
-
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--------------BBB AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--------------BBB AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--------------BBB AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--------------BBB BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB BBBBBB-----------CCCCCCCC BBBBBB-----------CCCCCCCC BBBBBB-----------CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC