Applet

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The applet was designed to implement the monotonic projections algorithm for polygonal chains.

Here is how it works:

Input points of the polygonal chain P by pressing the left mouse button
The "Clear" button is used to clear the screen.
Press on the button "Draw a Projection" to find all the directions with respect to which P is monotonic, and draw one as an example
Press on the button "Draw Monotonic Area" to find all the directions with respect to which P is monotonic, and draw the area formed by those directions
To input a random polygonal chain without inputing points individually, insert the number of points that you would like in the TextField besides the button "Random" on the bottom of the canvas. Then press the "Random" button to get a random polygonal chain, with the number of vertices indicated in the TextField. Continue pressing the random button until you obtain a polygonal chain that you like. (this might take a while :)
Caution: If you are using the random option, keep the number of vertices small(<=5 in practice), otherwise it is hard to get a monotonic projection. In fact, you can always get monotonic projections with 3 points.

The are three files that make up this applet. Please feel free to use any of them for academic purposes. download