text: Terrain Guarding Problem(TGP), which is known to be NP-complete, asks to find a smallest set of guard locations on a terrain T such that every point on T is visible by a guard. Here, we study this problem on 1.5D orthogonal terrains where the edges are bound to be horizontal or vertical. We propose a 2-approximation algorithm that runs in O(nlog m) time, where n and m are the sizes of input and output, respectively. This is an improvement over the previous best algorithm, which is a 2-approximation with O(n 2 ) running time.
  @cite_5: A 1.5-dimensional terrain T with n vertices is an xmonotone polygonal chain in the plane. A point guard p on T guards a point q of T if the line segment connecting p to q lies on or above T ; p is a vertex guard if it is a vertex of T . In the Optimal Terrain Guarding (OTG) problem on T , the objective is to guard the vertices of T by the minimum number of vertex guards. King and Krohn [9] showed that the OTG problem is NP-hard on arbitrary terrains, and [6] gave a PTAS for this problem. In this paper, we introduce directed visibility in which the visibility is directed only at adjacent vertices. We give an O(n)-time algorithm that solves the OTG problem exactly on orthogonal terrains under directed visibility.
  @cite_9: We prove that guarding the vertices of a rectilinear polygon P, whether by guards lying at vertices of P, or by guards lying on the boundary of P, or by guards lying anywhere in P, is NP-hard. For the first two proofs (i.e., vertex guards and boundary guards), we construct a reduction from minimum piercing of 2-intervals. The third proof is somewhat simpler; it is obtained by adapting a known reduction from minimum line cover. We also consider the problem of guarding the vertices of a 1.5D rectilinear terrain. We establish an interesting connection between this problem and the problem of computing a minimum clique cover in chordal graphs. This connection yields a 2-approximation algorithm for the guarding problem.
  @cite_6: A set @math of points on a terrain, also known as an @math -monotone polygonal chain, is said to guard the terrain if every point on the terrain is seen by a point in @math . Two points on the terrain see each other if and only if the line segment between them is never strictly below the terrain. The minimum terrain guarding problem asks for a minimum guarding set for the given input terrain. Using a reduction from PLANAR 3-SAT we prove that the decision version of this problem is NP-hard. This solves a significant open problem and complements recent positive approximability results for the optimization problem.
summary: For orthogonal terrains, Katz and Roisman @cite_9 gave a 2-approximation algorithm that runs in O( @math ) time, by computing a minimum clique cover in chordal graphs. Recently, Durocher . @cite_5 studied the orthogonal terrain guarding problem under where two vertices @math are considered to see each other only if the interior of the segment @math is strictly above the terrain. Under this restricted definition, no reflex vertex of the input terrain @math can see convex vertices both on its left and right side. This property simplifies the problem, and leads to a linear time greedy exact algorithm. Under standard visibility, Durocher . @cite_5 also observed that the hardness result for TGP in @cite_6 does not apply for orthogonal terrains, leaving the complexity of OTGP open.