Hierarchical hexagonal clustering and indexing

Abstract

Space-filling curves (SFCs) represent an efficient and straightforward method for sparse-space indexing to transform an n-dimensional space into a one-dimensional representation. This is often applied for multidimensional point indexing which brings a better perspective for data analysis, visualization and queries. SFCs are involved in many areas such as big data analysis and visualization, image decomposition, computer graphics and geographic information systems (GISs). The indexing methods subdivide the space into logic clusters of close points and they differ in various parameters including the cluster order, the distance metrics, and the pattern shape. Beside the simple and highly preferred triangular and square uniform grids, the hexagonal uniform grids have gained high interest especially in areas such as GISs, image processing and data visualization for the uniform distance between cells and high effectiveness of circle coverage. While the linearization of hexagons is an obvious approach for memory representation, it seems there is no hexagonal SFC indexing method generally used in practice. The main limitation of hexagons lies in lacking infinite decomposition into sub-hexagons and similarity of tiles on different levels of hierarchy. Our research aims at defining a fast and robust hexagonal SFC method. The Gosper fractal is utilized to preserve the benefits of hexagonal grids and to efficiently and hierarchically linearize points in a hexagonal grid while solving the non-convex shape and recursive transformation issues of the fractal. A comparison to other SFCs and grids is conducted to verify the robustness and effectiveness of our hexagonal method.