Bubble Sets

A Java implementation of Christopher Collins' bubble sets without the use of external libraries. A JavaScript implementation can be found here.

This project can be build in eclipse as well as with Maven. Use mvn install to generate jars in the target/ directory. The Bubble-Sets-X.X.X.jar contains the API for the bubble sets and Bubble-Sets-X.X.X-example.jar contains a little example program showing the bubble sets. Alternatively the project can be used as dependency in other Maven projects (see below).

To get started, you can use the following code:

// a list of groups of rectangles --
// bubble set will try to create an outline with
// as little overlap between the groups as possible
List<Rectangle2D[]> items = ...;

// using bubble set outlines
SetOutline setOutline = new BubbleSet();

// make the outlines smooth
AbstractShapeGenerator shapeGenerator = new BezierShapeGenerator(setOutline);

// generate shapes for each group
// the shapes can be drawn by a Graphics object
// as passed by a component's paint method
Shape[] shapes = shapeGenerator.createShapesFor(items);

A more advanced example uses groups which can also define lines that guide the iso-contour. It also shows a possible use within a paint method:

@Override
public void paint(final Graphics gfx) {
    // using graphics 2d
    Graphics2D g = (Graphics2D) gfx;

    // the list of groups
    List<Group> items = null;

    // use bubble sets and make the outlines smooth and less complex
    // to draw by simplifying the raw points
    AbstractShapeGenerator shapeGenerator = new ShapeSimplifier(
            new BSplineShapeGenerator(new ShapeSimplifier(
                    new PolygonShapeGenerator(new BubbleSet()))), 2.0);

    // generate shapes for each group
    Shape[] shapes = shapeGenerator.createShapesForGroups(items);

    for (Shape shape : shapes) {
        // drawing the content
        g.setColor(Color.ORANGE);
        g.fill(shape);

        // and then the outlines
        g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
        g.draw(shape);
    }
}

The following set outlines are available:

• setvis.ch.ConvexHull
• setvis.bubbleset.BubbleSet

And the following shape generators:

• setvis.shape.PolygonShapeGenerator
• setvis.shape.BezierShapeGenerator
• setvis.shape.BSplineShapeGenerator
• setvis.shape.ShapeSimplifier (reduces the shape complexity)

Maven Integration

In order to use bubble sets within a Maven project you can use the following dependency (in the <dependencies> section)::

<dependency>
  <groupId>joschi-mvn</groupId>
  <artifactId>Bubble-Sets</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1</version>
</dependency>

However, this requires an additional repository in the repositories section (<repositories>) of the pom.xml file:

<repository>
    <id>joschi</id>
    <url>https://www.josuakrause.com/mvn-repo/releases</url>
</repository>