Fast computation of smallest enclosing circle with center on a query line segment

Here we propose an efficient algorithm for computing the smallest enclosing circle whose center is constrained to lie on a query line segment. Our algorithm preprocesses a given set of n points P={p1,p2,…,pn} such that for any query line or line segment L, it efficiently locates a point c on L that minimizes the maximum distance among the points in P from c. Roy et al. [S. Roy, A. Karmakar, S. Das, S.C. Nandy, Constrained minimum enclosing circle with center on a query line segment, in: Proc. of the 31st Mathematical Foundation of Computer Science, 2006, pp. 765–776] have proposed an algorithm that solves the query problem in O(log2n) time using O(nlogn) preprocessing time and O(n) space. Our algorithm improves the query time to O(logn); but the preprocessing time and space complexities are both O(n2).