Recommendation

Has Potential

Link

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/software/AlgAnim/convex_hull.html#convex_anim

Delivery Method

Java Applet

License

Unavailable

Language

English

Author

KyungTae Kim; JiMo Jung; John Morris

Institution

University of Auckland

Project

Morris' Collection

RelationshipToProject

PartOfCollection

Works

Yes

Description

Two separate AVs with similarities in layout. They both show a field that is filled with points. These points are then connected so that the there will be the smallest possible polygon which encloses each point. In the process of comparing coordinates and connecting the points the two applications have a bit different approach. There is possibility to control actions with buttons Stop, Run, Step and Skip. Unfortunately the command for viewing source code doesn't work.

Evaluation

The first application by KyungTae Kim provides a fixed set of points that will always appear in the same order when launching the program. Each step will pop out a small comment beside the active points to explain the process. Beside the graph the names of the points chosen currently for the polygon are updated step by step to a list. The second application by JiMo Jung offers a randomly created set of points every time the program is launched. During the steps of the process there appears a list of coordinates of the points that have been checked and those that belong currently to the polygon. Further written explanations about the steps in the process are not available. When evaluating both applications the first one benefits from having more explanations whereas the second one benefits from having a randomly generated example. A downside for both is that the user is not in active interaction with the process of algorithm. All in all, the visualizations provided in these two applications give a possibility to see step by step the building of a convex hull. The first one with more detailed explanations is more suitable for an independent learner and the second one offers more alternative examples. The visualizations are more about showing the process that making user to actively build an answer.

ActivityLevel

Step Control; Animation; Canned Data

GoodFor

Lecture Aid

Screenshots

Videos

References

HowToUse

First Visited

2007-10-03

Last Visited

2008-07-17

Last Updated

2004

Topic

ComputationalGeometry

Community

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