The problem of uniformly placing N points onto a sphere finds applications in many areas.  An online version of this problem was recently studied with respect to the gap ratio as a measure of uniformity. The proposed online algorithm of Chen et al. is upper-bounded by 5.99  , which is achieved by considering a circumscribed dodecahedron followed by a recursive decomposition of each face. We analyse a simple tessellation technique based on the regular icosahedron, which decreases the upper-bound for the online version of this problem to around 2.84. Moreover, we show that the lower bound for the gap ratio of placing up to three points is approximately 1.618. The uniform distribution of points on a sphere also corresponds to uniform distribution of unit quaternions which represent rotations in 3D space and has numerous applications in many areas .
The problem of uniformly placing N points onto a sphere finds applications in many areas. For example, points on the sphere correspond to unit quaternions as well as to the group of rotations SO(3) and the online version of generating uniform rotations (known as "incremental generation") plays a crucial role in a large number of engineering applications ranging from robotics and aeronautics to computer graphics. An online version of this problem was recently studied with respect to the gap ratio as a measure of uniformity. The first online algorithm of Chen et al. was upper-bounded by 5.99 and later improved to 3.69 , which is achieved by considering a circumscribed dodecahedron followed by a recursive decomposition of each face. In this paper we provide a more efficient tessellation technique based on the regular icosahedron, which improves the upper-bound for the online version of this problem , decreasing it to approximately 2.84. Moreover, we show that the lower bound for the gap ratio of placing at least three points is the golden ratio, approx. 1.618, and for at least four points is no less than 1.726 .
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For example, points on the sphere correspond to unit quaternions as well as to the group of rotations SO(3) and the online version of generating uniform rotations (known as "incremental generation") plays a crucial role in a large number of engineering applications ranging from robotics and aeronautics to computer graphics.
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proposed
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and later improved to 3.69
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We analyse a simple
In this paper we provide a more efficient
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, decreasing it to approximately
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approximately 1.618. The uniform distribution of points on a sphere also corresponds to uniform distribution of unit quaternions which represent rotations in 3D space and has numerous applications in many areas
the golden ratio, approx. 1.618, and for at least four points is no less than 1.726