C++ Language

An important problem in conservation management is determination of the home range of an animal population. Wildlife biologists solve this problem by tagging a sample population and tracking location reports on a map of the area in which the sample population lives. An estimate on the home range is computed by finding the convex hull of the 2-d point cloud formed on the map by the observation locations. Assume that we have a tagged population that is living in an area upon which we overlay a 1000 by 1000 meter grid.

Write a program that reads a collection of observations from a data file (stored as x-y points, one per line, you will need to write a simple program that randomly generates one of these files) and determines the home range of the population by reporting the list of points that form the convex hull of the observation locations. Use the brute force algorithm presented in class to compute the convex hull.