I am calculating the intersection point of two lines with the following function:
// Functions of lines as per requested:
// f(y1) = starty1 + x * d1
// f(y2) = starty2 + x * d2
// x1 and y1 are the coordinates of the first point
// x2 and y2 are the coordinates of the second point
// d1 and d2 are the deltas of the corresponding lines
private static double[] intersect(double x1, double y1, double d1, double x2, double y2, double d2) {
double starty1 = y1 - x1 * d1;
double starty2 = y2 - x2 * d2;
double rx = (starty2 - starty1) / (d1 - d2);
double ry = starty1 + d1 * rx;
tmpRes[0] = rx;
tmpRes[1] = ry;
return tmpRes;
}
// This is the same function, but takes 4 points to make two lines,
// instead of two points and two deltas.
private static double[] tmpRes = new double[2];
private static double[] intersect(double x1, double y1, double x2, double y2, double x3, double y3, double x4, double y4) {
double d1 = (y1 - y2) / (x1 - x2);
double d2 = (y3 - y4) / (x3 - x4);
double starty1 = y1 - x1 * d1;
double starty2 = y3 - x3 * d2;
double rx = (starty2 - starty1) / (d1 - d2);
double ry = starty1 + d1 * rx;
tmpRes[0] = rx;
tmpRes[1] = ry;
return tmpRes;
}
However as d1 or d2 get bigger (for vertical lines) the results are getting much less accurate. How can I prevent this from happening?
For my case I have two lines perpendicular to each other. If the lines are rotated 45 degrees, I get accurate results. If the lines are at 0 or 90 degrees, I get inaccurate results (one axis of the intersection is correct, the other is all over the place.
Edit
Using a cross product:
private static double[] crTmp = new double[3];
public static double[] cross(double a, double b, double c, double a2, double b2, double c2){
double newA = b*c2 - c*b2;
double newB = c*a2 - a*c2;
double newC = a*b2 - b*a2;
crTmp[0] = newA;
crTmp[1] = newB;
crTmp[2] = newC;
return crTmp;
}
public static double[] linesIntersect(double x1, double y1, double d1, double x2, double y2, double d2)
{
double dd1 = 1.0 / d1;
double dd2 = 1.0 / d2;
double a1, b1, a2, b2, c1, c2;
if (Math.abs(d1) < Math.abs(dd1)) {
a1 = d1;
b1 = -1.0;
c1 = y1 - x1 * d1;
} else {
a1 = 1.0;
b1 = dd1;
c1 = -x1 - y1 * dd1;
}
if (Math.abs(d2) < Math.abs(dd2)) {
a2 = d2;
b2 = -1.0;
c2 = y2 - x2 * d2;
} else {
a2 = 1.0;
b2 = dd2;
c2 = -x2 - y2 * dd2;
}
double[] v1 = {a1, b1, c1};
double[] v2 = {a2, b2, c2};
double[] res = cross(v1[0], v1[1], v1[2], v2[0], v2[1], v2[2]);
tmpRes[0] = res[0] / res[2];
tmpRes[1] = res[1] / res[2];
return tmpRes;
}
It is easiest if you use homogeneous notation:
Change your line representation from y = d*x + c
to
d*x - y + c = 0 = [d -1 c] . [x y 1]
(where .
means inner product)
Using this notation, you can write your lines as two vectors: [d1 -1 y1]
and [d2 -1 y2]
Take the cross product of these two vectors, giving you a new vector:
[d1 -1 y1] x [d2 -1 y2] = [a b c]
(I'll leave you to look up how to calculate the cross product, but it's just simple multiplication)
The intersection of the two points is at (a/c, b/c)
. Provided the two lines are not parallel, c will be non-zero.
See: http://robotics.stanford.edu/~birch/projective/node4.html
One advantage of the a*x + b*y + c = 0
form of the line equation is that you can represent vertical lines naturally: you can't represent the line x = 1
by in the form y = m*x + c
, because m
would be infinity, whereas you can with 1*x + 0*y - 1 = 0
.