Efficient computation of continuous skeletons

An O(n lgn) algorithm is presented for the construction of skeletons of arbitrary n-line polygonal figures. This algorithm is based on an O(n lgn) algorithm for the construction of generalized Voronoi diagrams (our generalization replaces point sets by sets of line segments constrained to intersect only at end points). The generalized Voronoi diagram algorithm employs a linear time algorithm for the merging of two arbitrary (standard) Voronoi diagrams.