Polynomial Time Algorithms for Label Size Maximization on Rotating Maps

• Published in: Journal of Information Processing Vol. 25; pp. 572 - 579
• Main Authors: Yokosuka, Yusuke, Imai, Keiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Information Processing Society of Japan 01.01.2017; Japan Science and Technology Agency
• Subjects: Algorithms; Anchors; dynamic maps; label size maximization; Labeling; Labels; map labeling; Maximization; rotating maps
• ISSN: 1882-6652; 1882-6652
• DOI: 10.2197/ipsjjip.25.572

Map labeling is the problem of placing labels at corresponding graphical features on a map. There are two main optimization problems: the label number maximization problem and the label size maximization problem. In general, both problems are NP-hard for static maps. Recently, the widespread use of several applications, such as personal mapping systems, has increased the importance of dynamic maps and the label number maximization problem for dynamic cases has been studied. In this paper, we consider the label size maximization problem for points on rotating maps. Our model is as follows. For each label, an anchor point is chosen inside the label or on its boundary. Each label is placed such that the anchor point coincides with the corresponding point on the map. Furthermore, while the map fully rotates from 0 to 2π, the labels are placed horizontally according to the angle of the map. Our problem consists of finding the maximum scale factor for the labels such that the labels do not intersect, and determining the placing of the anchor points. We describe an O(n log n)-time and O(n)-space algorithm for the case where each anchor point is inside the label. Moreover, if the anchor points are on the boundaries, we also present an O(n log n)-time and O(n)-space exact and approximation algorithms for several label shapes.