The point event is handled when a new parabolic arc appears on parabolic
front. This event happens exactly when a new arc appears on the parabolic front,
or more precise, when the scanning line encounteres a point pi
from set P. Then, the scanning plane
hits the coin defined above point
pi for the first time. Because the coin and the scanning plane
are slanted for the same angle, the intersection between them appears as a line
on the coin surface. This line is actually a half-edge, but if it is projected
onto xy-plane we can consider it a degenerated parabola with zero width. This
degenerated parabola starts to open as the scanning plane
slides over the space. When a new arc comes
across, it splits the existed arc into two parts and becomes a new member of the
parabolic front (Figure 4).
What happens with Voronoi diagram when a point event is encountered? Lets remember, that a joint point of two arcs on parabolic front describes the Voronoi edge.
Roman Cuk - roman.cuk@uni-mb.si