Between 1997 and 2002, AliaslWavefront's Maya has found wide acceptance in the animation, visual effects, and games communities, in large part because of the tremendous extent that it encourages customization through developing plug-ins and scripting in Maya Embedded Language (MEL). Major studios, including Disney, Dreamworks,...

Search has been vital to artificial intelligence from the very beginning as a core technique in problem solving. The authors present a thorough overview of heuristic search with a balance of discussion between theoretical analysis and efficient implementation and application to real-world problems. Current developments in search such as...

Image synthesis, or rendering, is a field of transformation: it changes geometry and physics into meaningful images. Because the most popular algorithms frequently change, it is increasingly important for researchers and implementors to have a basic understanding of the principles of image synthesis. Focusing on theory, Andrew...

In computing, heterogeneous computer...

Create physically realistic 3D Graphics environments with this introduction to the ideas and techniques behind the process. Author David H. Eberly includes simulations to introduce the key problems involved and then gradually reveals the mathematical and physical concepts needed to solve them. He then describes all the algorithmic foundations...

A gadget freak I am not—let’s be clear about that from the outset—but in the past couple of weeks our postman (a.k.a. the mailman) has arrived not once, but twice, with a package containing one of the most ingeniously compact bundles of consumer technology that exists today. The first was a long-overdue necessity: a...

Modern embedded systems are used for connected, media-rich, and highly integrated handheld devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, and MP3 players. All of these embedded systems require networking, graphic user interfaces, and integration with PCs, as opposed to traditional embedded processors that can perform only limited functions...

Authors Jim Jeffers and James Reinders spent two years helping educate customers about the prototype and pre-production hardware before Intel introduced the first Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor. They have distilled their own experiences coupled with insights from many expert customers, Intel Field Engineers, Application Engineers and Technical...

Iwhat has happened in that time. We have seen the transformation of the Web from a small experiment to a World Wide phenomenon. We have seen the emergence of voice over IP and peer-to-peer content sharing. We have seen technology speed up a hundred-fold, the emergence of broadband to the home, and the rise of botnets and other horrid...

I have been extremely fortunate. I have a wonderful wife and two wonderful grown-up children, and I have had all but thirty years working for Shell, which provided an environment...