Dynamic convex hull

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The dynamic convex hull problem is a class of dynamic problems in computational geometry. The problem consists in the maintenance, i.e., keeping track, of the convex hull for input data undergoing a sequence of discrete changes, i.e., when input data elements may be inserted, deleted, or modified. It should be distinguished from the kinetic convex hull, which studies similar problems for continuously moving points. Dynamic convex hull problems may be distinguished by the types of the input data and the allowed types of modification of the input data.

Planar point set
It is easy to construct an example for which the convex hull contains all input points, but after the insertion of a single point the convex hull becomes a triangle. And conversely, the deletion of a single point may produce the opposite drastic change of the size of the output. Therefore, if the convex hull is required to be reported in traditional way as a polygon, the lower bound for the worst-case computational complexity of the recomputation of the convex hull is Ω(N)
{\displaystyle \Omega (N)}, since this time is required for a mere reporting of the output. This lower bound is attainable, because several general-purpose convex hull algorithms run in linear time when input points are ordered in some way and logarithmic-time methods for dynamic maintenance of ordered data are well-known.