commons-geometry-core/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/geometry/core/partitioning/Embedding.java

/*
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
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 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
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 */
package org.apache.commons.geometry.core.partitioning;

import org.apache.commons.geometry.core.Point;

/** This interface defines mappers between a space and one of its sub-spaces.

 * <p>Sub-spaces are the lower dimensions subsets of a n-dimensions
 * space. The (n-1)-dimension sub-spaces are specific sub-spaces known
 * as {@link Hyperplane hyperplanes}. This interface can be used regardless
 * of the dimensions differences. For example, a line in 3D Euclidean space
 * can map directly from 3 dimensions to 1.</p>

 * <p>In the 3D Euclidean space, hyperplanes are 2D planes, and the 1D
 * sub-spaces are lines.</p>

 * <p>
 * Note that this interface is <em>not</em> intended to be implemented
 * by Apache Commons Geometry users, it is only intended to be implemented
 * within the library itself. New methods may be added even for minor
 * versions, which breaks compatibility for external implementations.
 * </p>

 * @param <P> Point type defining the embedding space.
 * @param <S> Point type defining the embedded sub-space.

 * @see Hyperplane
 */
public interface Embedding<P extends Point<P>, S extends Point<S>> {

    /** Transform a space point into a sub-space point.
     * @param point n-dimension point of the space
     * @return (n-1)-dimension point of the sub-space corresponding to
     * the specified space point
     * @see #toSpace
     */
    S toSubSpace(P point);

    /** Transform a sub-space point into a space point.
     * @param point (n-1)-dimension point of the sub-space
     * @return n-dimension point of the space corresponding to the
     * specified sub-space point
     * @see #toSubSpace
     */
    P toSpace(S point);

}