Bobbin lace is a fibre art form in which intricate and delicate patterns are created by braiding together many threads. We present an overview of the making of bobbin lace, illustrated with a simple, traditional bookmark design. We briefly summarize research on the topology of textiles and braid theory, which form a base for the current work. We then define a new mathematical model that supports the enumeration and generation of bobbin lace patterns using an intelligent combinatorial search, and which is capable of producing patterns that have never been seen before. Finally, we apply our new patterns to an original bookmark design and propose future areas for exploration.
In the 2D projection, strand positions are labelled @math to @math from left to right. Using standard braid notation @cite_1 , @math represents a strand in position @math crossing its neighbour to the right. Similarly, @math represents a strand in position @math crossing its neighbour to the right. We will use this standard notation to represent the basic cross and twist actions of bobbin lace. As mentioned in the introduction, bobbin lace actions are performed on four threads or two pairs of threads at a time. A mathematically idealized thread with no thickness can be equated to a strand. If we label the pairs from left to right, the two adjacent pairs @math and @math correspond to the four threads in positions @math , @math , @math and @math where @math . The cross action is represented by @math and the twist action is represented by @math . From this generalized description, we see that @math will only occur for odd values of @math and @math will only occur for even values of @math .
@cite_1
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IN THIS PAPER I construct a state model for the (original) Jones polynomial [5]. (In [6] a state model was constructed for the Conway polynomial.) As we shall see, this model for the Jones polynomial arises as a normalization of a regular isotopy invariant of unoriented knots and links, called here the bracket polynomial, and denoted 〈K〉 for a link projectionK . The concept of regular isotopy will be explained below. The bracket polynomial has a very simple state model. In §2 (Theorem 2.10) I use the bracket polynomial to prove (via Proposition 2.9 and an observation of Kunio Murasugi) that the number of crossings in a connected, reduced alternating projection of a link L is a topological invariant of L. (A projection is reduced if it has no isthmus in the sense of Fig. 5.) In other words, any two connected, reduced alternating projections of the link L have the same number of crossings. This is a remarkable application of our technique. It solves affirmatively a conjecture going back to the knot tabulations of Tait, Kirkman and Little over a century ago (see [6], [9], [10]). Along with this application to alternating links, we also use the bracket polynomial to obtain a necessary condition for an alternating reduced link diagram to be ambient isotopic to its mirror image (Theorem 3.1). One consequence of this theorem is that a reduced alternating diagram with twist number greater than or equal to one-third the number of crossings is necessarily chiral. The paper is organized as follows. In §2 the bracket polynomial is developed, and its relationship with the Jones polynomial is explained. This provides a self-contained introduction to the Jones polynomial and to our techniques. The last part of §2 contains the applications to alternating knots, and to bounds on the minimal and maximal degrees of the polynomial. §3 contains the results about chirality of alternating knots. §4 discusses the structure of our state model in the case of braids. Here the states have an algebraic structure related to Jones’s representation of the braid group into a Von Neumann Algebra. Given an undirected @math -node unweighted graph @math , a spanner with stretch function @math is a subgraph @math such that, if two nodes are at distance @math in @math , then they are at distance at most @math in @math . Spanners are very well studied in the literature. The typical goal is to construct the sparsest possible spanner for a given stretch function. In this paper we study pairwise spanners, where we require to approximate the @math - @math distance only for pairs @math in a given set @math . Such @math -spanners were studied before [Coppersmith,Elkin'05] only in the special case that @math is the identity function, i.e. distances between relevant pairs must be preserved exactly (a.k.a. pairwise preservers). Here we present pairwise spanners which are at the same time sparser than the best known preservers (on the same @math ) and of the best known spanners (with the same @math ). In more detail, for arbitrary @math , we show that there exists a @math -spanner of size @math with @math . Alternatively, for any @math , there exists a @math -spanner of size @math with @math . We also consider the relevant special case that there is a critical set of nodes @math , and we wish to approximate either the distances within nodes in @math or from nodes in @math to any other node. We show that there exists an @math -spanner of size @math with @math , and an @math -spanner of size @math with @math . All the mentioned pairwise spanners can be constructed in polynomial time. Here, we propose a planning method for knotting unknotting of deformable linear objects. First, we propose a topological description of the state of a linear object. Second, transitions between these states are defined by introducing four basic operations. Then, possible sequences of crossing state transitions, i.e. possible manipulation processes, can be generated once the initial and the objective states are given. Third, a method for determining grasping points and their directions of movement is proposed to realize derived manipulation processes. Our proposed method indicated that it is theoretically possible for any knotting manipulation of a linear object placed on a table to be realized by a one-handed robot with three translational DOF and one rotational DOF. Furthermore, criteria for evaluation of generated plans are introduced to reduce the candidates of manipulation plans. Fourth, a planning method for tying knots tightly is established because they fulfill their fixing function by tightening them. Finally, we report knotting unknotting manipulation performed by a vision-guided system to demonstrate the usefulness of our approach. Given a set of @math n points, each is painted by one of the @math k given colors, we want to choose @math k points with distinct colors to form a color spanning set. For each color spanning set, we can construct the convex hull and the smallest axis-aligned enclosing rectangle, etc. Assuming that each point is chosen independently and identically from the subset of points of the same color, we propose an @math O ( n 2 ) time algorithm to compute the expected area of convex hulls of the color spanning sets and an @math O ( n 2 ) time algorithm to compute the expected perimeter of convex hulls of the color spanning sets. For the expected perimeter (resp. area) of the smallest perimeter (resp. area) axis-aligned enclosing rectangles of the color spanning sets, we present an @math O ( n log n ) (resp. @math O ( n 2 ) ) time algorithm. We also propose a simple approximation algorithm to compute the expected diameter of the color spanning sets. For the expected distance of the closest pair, we show that it is @math # P-complete to compute and there exists no polynomial time @math 2 n 1 - ? approximation algorithm to compute the probability that the closest pair distance of all color spanning sets equals to a given value @math d unless @math P = N P , even in one dimension and when each color paints two points.