Length and surface area estimation under smoothness restrictions

Abstract

The problem of estimating the Minkowski content L 0(G) of a body G ⊂ ℝ d is considered. For d = 2, the Minkowski content represents the boundary length of G. It is assumed that a ball of radius r can roll inside and outside the boundary of G. We use this shape restriction to propose a new estimator for L 0(G). This estimator is based on the information provided by a random sample, taken on a square containing G, in which we know whether a sample point is in G or not. We obtain the almost sure convergence rate for the proposed estimator.