A PTAS for a disc covering problem using width-bounded separators
In this paper, we study the following disc covering problem: Given a set of discs of various radii on the plane and centers on the grid points, find a subset of discs to maximize the area covered by exactly one disc. This problem originates from the application in digital halftoning, with the best known approximation factor being 5.83 (Asano et al., 2004). We show that if their radii are between two positive constants, then there exists a polynomial time approximation scheme. Our techniques are based on the width-bounded geometric separator recently developed in Fu and Wang (2004), Fu (2006).
disc covering width-bounded separator approximation algorithms randomized algorithms