Scalable Parallel Algorithms for Geometric Pattern Recognition

This paper considers a variety of geometric pattern recognition problems on input sets of size n using a coarse grained multicomputer model consisting of p processors with 0(n p) local memory each (i.e., 0(n p) memory cells of 3(log n) bits apiece), where the processors are connected to an arbitrary interconnection network. It introduces efficient scalable parallel algorithms for a number of geometric problems including the rectangle finding problem, the maximal equally spaced collinear points problem, and the point set pattern matching problem. All of the algorithms presented are scalable in that they are applicable and efficient over a very wide range of ratios of problem size to number of processors. In addition to the practicality imparted by scalability, these algorithms are easy to implement in that all required communications can be achieved by a small number of calls to standard global routing operations. 1999 Academic Press