WANG TILE Meaning and
Definition
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A wang tile is a type of square tile used in mathematical tiling theory. It is named after mathematician Hao Wang, who introduced the concept in the 1960s. A wang tile is characterized by its color and pattern on each of its sides. In a perfect wang tile set, every possible combination of colors and patterns occurs exactly once.
These tiles are rigid and can only be arranged in direct adjacency to one another. They cannot be rotated or flipped. The arrangement of wang tiles often forms a pattern or tessellation that can be extended indefinitely.
Wang tiles are widely used in computer graphics and digital image processing. They provide a simple mathematical model for generating complex and visually appealing patterns. By choosing an appropriate set of wang tiles, one can create visually detailed yet locally simple and connected designs.
The research and application of wang tiles have also been essential in the study of algorithmic randomness and tiling algorithms in Turing machines. They have found applications in various fields such as cryptography, computer vision, and texture synthesis.
In summary, a wang tile is a square tile with distinct colors and patterns on each of its sides, forming a mathematical model used for creating intricate patterns and tessellations. Its rigid nature, inability to rotate or flip, and requirement for adjacent placement make it suitable for computer graphics, algorithmic randomness, and tiling problems.
Etymology of WANG TILE
The word "wang tile" comes from the name of its inventor, Hao Wang. He was a Chinese-American mathematician and computer scientist who introduced these tiles in the late 1960s. The term "Wang tile" was coined to honor him and to identify the specific type of mathematical tiling that he developed.
