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minimum distance problem
Posted:
Jul 9, 1996 2:39 PM
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Hi,
I was wondering if any computational geometrists out there can help me
with this one:
I have 2 line segments in R^3, both of which are defined by their end
points. I need to find the shortest line segment that joins the two, and
where on the two line segments this minimum length segment intersects.
If the 2 line segments intersect, then the intersection point should be
returned instead, along with a minimum distance of zero.
Is there an established solution to this problem, one that is relatively
fast to compute? I've checked through some computational geometry
texts, but they only talk about line segments in a plane, or convex
polytopes in R^3, neither of which is quite the case here.
Thanks,
Paul MacKenzie
pmackenz@crim.ca
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