Consistent Labeling of Rotating Maps

Abstract: Dynamic maps that allow continuous map rotations, e.g., on mobile devices, encounter new issues unseen in static map labeling before. We study the following dynamic map labeling problem: The input is a static, labeled map, i.e., a set P of points in the plane with attached non-overlapping horizontal rectangular labels. The goal is to find a consistent labeling of P under rotation that maximizes the number of visible labels for all rotation angles such that the labels remain horizontal while the map is rotated. A labeling is consistent if a single active interval of angles is selected for each label such that labels neither intersect each other nor occlude points in P at any rotation angle. We first introduce a general model for labeling rotating maps and derive basic geometric properties of consistent solutions. We show NP-completeness of the active interval maximization problem even for unit-square labels. We then present a constant-factor approximation for this problem based on line stabbing, and refine it further into an efficient polynomial-time approximation scheme (EPTAS). Finally, we extend the EPTAS to the more general setting of rectangular labels of bounded size and aspect ratio.