Geo Fencing - point inside/outside polygon

Question

I would like to determine a polygon and implement an algorithm which would check if a point is inside or outside the polygon.

Does anyone know if there is any exampl

Answer 1

The problem is easier if your polygon is convex. If so, you can do a simple test for each line to see if the point is on the inside or outside of that line (extending to infinity in both directions). Otherwise, for concave polygons, draw an imaginary ray from your point out to infinity (in any direction). Count how many times it crosses a boundary line. Odd means the point is inside, even means the point is outside.

This last algorithm is trickier than it looks. You will have to be very careful about what happens when your imaginary ray exactly hits one of the polygon's vertices.

If your imaginary ray goes in the -x direction, you can choose only to count lines that include at least one point whose y coordinate is strictly less than the y coordinate of your point. This is how you get most of the weird edge cases to work correctly.