Can I use the Postgres functions to find points inside a rotating rectangle of fixed size?

Question

I\'m using Postgres 9.5 and I\'ve just installed PostGIS for some extended functions. I have a table with (x,y) points and I want to find the rectangle that fits the maximum num

Answer 1

I ended up by generating rectangle vertices, rotating those vertices, and then comparing the area of the rectangle (constant) with the area of the 4 triangles that are made by including the test point.

This technique is based on the parsimonious answer:

Make triangle. Suppose, abcd is the rectangle and x is the point then if area(abx)+area(bcx)+area(cdx)+area(dax) equals area(abcd) then the point is inside it.

The rectangles are defined by

• A bottom left (-x/2,-y/2)

• B top left (-x/2,+y/2)

• C top right (+x/2,+y/2)

• D bottom right (+x/2,-y/2)

This code then checks if point (qx,qy) is inside a rectangle of width x=10 and height y=20, which is rotated around the origin (0,0) by an angle with range of 0 to 180, by 10 degrees.

Here's the code. It's taking 9 minutes to check 750k points, so there is definite room for improvement. Additionally, It can be parallelized once I upgrade to 9.6

with t as (select 10*0.5 as x, 20*0.5 as y, 17.0 as qx, -3.0 as qy)

select 
    z.angle
    -- ABC area
    --,abs(0.5*(z.ax*(z.by-z.cy)+z.bx*(z.cy-z.ay)+z.cx*(z.ay-z.by)))

    -- CDA area
    --,abs(0.5*(z.cx*(z.dy-z.ay)+z.dx*(z.ay-z.cy)+z.ax*(z.cy-z.dy)))

    -- ABCD area
    ,abs(0.5*(z.ax*(z.by-z.cy)+z.bx*(z.cy-z.ay)+z.cx*(z.ay-z.by))) + abs(0.5*(z.cx*(z.dy-z.ay)+z.dx*(z.ay-z.cy)+z.ax*(z.cy-z.dy))) as abcd_area

    -- ABQ area
    --,abs(0.5*(z.ax*(z.by-z.qx)+z.bx*(z.qy-z.ay)+z.qx*(z.ay-z.by)))

    -- BCQ area
    --,abs(0.5*(z.bx*(z.cy-z.qx)+z.cx*(z.qy-z.by)+z.qx*(z.by-z.cy)))

    -- CDQ area
    --,abs(0.5*(z.cx*(z.dy-z.qx)+z.dx*(z.qy-z.cy)+z.qx*(z.cy-z.dy)))

    -- DAQ area
    --,abs(0.5*(z.dx*(z.ay-z.qx)+z.ax*(z.qy-z.dy)+z.qx*(z.dy-z.ay)))

    -- total area of triangles with question point (ABQ + BCQ + CDQ + DAQ)
    ,abs(0.5*(z.ax*(z.by-z.qx)+z.bx*(z.qy-z.ay)+z.qx*(z.ay-z.by)))
        + abs(0.5*(z.bx*(z.cy-z.qx)+z.cx*(z.qy-z.by)+z.qx*(z.by-z.cy)))
        + abs(0.5*(z.cx*(z.dy-z.qx)+z.dx*(z.qy-z.cy)+z.qx*(z.cy-z.dy)))
        + abs(0.5*(z.dx*(z.ay-z.qx)+z.ax*(z.qy-z.dy)+z.qx*(z.dy-z.ay))) as point_area

from
(
SELECT 
    a.id as angle
    -- bottom left (A)
    ,(-t.x) * cos(radians(a.id)) - (-t.y) * sin(radians(a.id)) as ax
    ,(-t.x) * sin(radians(a.id)) + (-t.y) * cos(radians(a.id)) as ay
    --top left (B)
    ,(-t.x) * cos(radians(a.id)) - (t.y) * sin(radians(a.id)) as bx
    ,(-t.x) * sin(radians(a.id)) + (t.y) * cos(radians(a.id)) as by
    --top right (C)
    ,(t.x) * cos(radians(a.id)) - (t.y) * sin(radians(a.id)) as cx
    ,(t.x) * sin(radians(a.id)) + (t.y) * cos(radians(a.id)) as cy
    --bottom right (D)
    ,(t.x) * cos(radians(a.id)) - (-t.y) * sin(radians(a.id)) as dx
    ,(t.x) * sin(radians(a.id)) + (-t.y) * cos(radians(a.id)) as dy

    -- point to check (Q)
    ,t.qx as qx
    ,t.qy as qy
FROM generate_series(0,180,10) AS a(id), t
) z
;

the results then are

angle;abcd_area;point_area
0;200;340
10;200;360.6646055963
20;200;373.409049054212
30;200;377.846096908265
40;200;373.84093170467
50;200;361.515248361426
60;200;341.243556529821
70;200;313.641801308188
80;200;279.548648061772
90;200;240
*100;200;200*
*110;200;200*
*120;200;200*
*130;200;200*
*140;200;200*
150;200;237.846096908265
160;200;277.643408923024
170;200;312.04311584956
180;200;340

Where the rotations of angles 100, 110, 120, 130 and 140 degrees then includes the test-point (indicated with *)