We propose a novel data structure, the Radial Histogram, to process streams including spatial data points. It allows a number of geometric aggregates involving the spread and extent of the points in the data streams---diameter, furthest neighbors, convex hulls---to be accurately estimated to arbitrary precision. By using multiple Radial Histograms for a set of given facilities, we can process data streams consisting of massive numbers of client points. We can then accurately estimate number of spatial aggregates involving relative placement of clients with respect to the facilities, including reverse nearest neighbors, spatial joins and more.
Radial histograms use very small space and are exceedingly simple to
implement. Nevertheless, we prove that they guarantee accurate estimation
for spatial aggregate queries mentioned above. An experimental evaluation
shows them to perform very well in practice.
Paper Available at:
ftp://dimacs.rutgers.edu/pub/dimacs/TechnicalReports/TechReports/2003/2003-11.ps.gz