Unions of sets starshaped via staircase paths or via paths of bounded length (Q1290877)

An orthogonal polygon \(S\) is defined as a connected union of finitely many convex polygons whose edges are parallel to the coordinate axes of a rectangular coordinate system. By a staircase path we mean a simple polygonal path whose edges are parallel to the coordinate axes and if the associated vectors alternate in direction. We say that a point \(x\in S\) sees a point \(y\in S\) via staircase paths if there exists a staircase path in \(S\) which contains \(x\) and \(y\). We call \(S\) a starshaped set via staircase paths if there exists a point \(p\in S\) which sees each point of \(S\) via staircase paths. The set of all such points \(p\) is called a staircase kernel of \(S\). (The author shows that a point \(p\) belongs to the staircase kernel provided every boundary point of \(S\) sees \(p\) via staircase paths in \(S\). She also proves a few theorems about staircase visibility in sets which are unions of two or three starshaped sets via staircase paths.