Reputation: 8950
I have been wondering for quite a while now if there was an already known algorithm solving the following problem or, at least, part of it.
Let's say there are a finite set of locations (x,y) and each of those locations have also a type (house, restaurant, café, cinéma...) and a weight (user rating, quality/price ratio ...). Moreover, there is a subset of paths faster than others (depending on the transportation type and the desired time of arrival).
The kind of question to answer: we are a group of people all located at n different locations, we wanna meet at time T, find us the best location (minimizing each's path length and travel time) of type t (cinema...).
Does that sound like any known algorithm?
Best regards, Rolf
Upvotes: 3
Views: 267
Reputation: 1399
There are several algorithms to solve this problem, this problem is known as Facility Location or k center problem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facility_location it's a NP Hard problem and there are some algorithms that aproximate solutions, also search for "Optimal meeting point" problem that it's used in spacial databases.
Upvotes: 2