This book reviews the algorithms for processing geometric data, with a practical focus on important techniques not covered by traditional courses on computer vision and computer graphics. Features: presents an overview of the underlying mathematical theory, covering vector spaces, metric space, affine spaces, differential geometry, and finite difference methods for derivatives and differential equations; reviews geometry representations, including polygonal meshes, splines, and subdivision surfaces; examines techniques for computing curvature from polygonal meshes; describes algorithms for mesh smoothing, mesh parametrization, and mesh optimization and simplification; discusses point location databases and convex hulls of point sets; investigates the reconstruction of triangle meshes from point clouds, including methods for registration of point clouds and surface reconstruction; provides additional material at a supplementary website; includes self-study exercises throughout the text.

This book presents the latest developments regarding a detailed mobile agent-enabled anomaly detection and verification system for resource constrained sensor networks; a number of algorithms on multi-aspect anomaly detection in sensor networks; several algorithms on mobile agent transmission optimization in resource constrained sensor networks; an algorithm on mobile agent-enabled in situ verification of anomalous sensor nodes; a detailed Petri Net-based formal modeling and analysis of the proposed system, and an algorithm on fuzzy logic-based cross-layer anomaly detection and mobile agent transmission optimization. As such, it offers a comprehensive text for interested readers from academia and industry alike.

This book provides a concise overview of VR systems and their cybersickness effects, giving a description of possible reasons and existing solutions to reduce or avoid them. Moreover, the book explores the impact that understanding how efficiently our brains are producing a coherent and rich representation of the perceived outside world would have on helping VR technics to be more efficient and friendly to use. Getting Rid of Cybersickness will help readers to understand the underlying technics and social stakes involved, from engineering design to autonomous vehicle motion sickness to video games, with the hope of providing an insight of VR sickness induced by the emerging immersive technologies. This book will therefore be of interest to academics, researchers and designers within the field of VR, as well as industrial users of VR and driving simulators.

This book offers a clear understanding of the concept of context-aware machine learning including an automated rule-based framework within the broad area of data science and analytics, particularly, with the aim of data-driven intelligent decision making. Thus, we have bestowed a comprehensive study on this topic that explores multi-dimensional contexts in machine learning modeling, context discretization with time-series modeling, contextual rule discovery and predictive analytics, recent-pattern or rule-based behavior modeling, and their usefulness in various context-aware intelligent applications and services. The presented machine learning-based techniques can be employed in a wide range of real-world application areas ranging from personalized mobile services to security intelligence, highlighted in the book. As the interpretability of a rule-based system is high, the automation in discovering rules from contextual raw data can make this book more impactful for the application developers as well as researchers. Overall, this book provides a good reference for both academia and industry people in the broad area of data science, machine learning, AI-Driven computing, human-centered computing and personalization, behavioral analytics, IoT and mobile applications, and cybersecurity intelligence.

This book introduces the latest visual effects (VFX) techniques that can be applied to game programming. The usefulness of the physicality-based VFX techniques, such as water, fire, smoke, and wind, has been proven through active involvement and utilization in movies and images. However, they have yet to be extensively applied in the game industry, due to the high technical barriers. Readers of this book can learn not only the theories about the latest VFX techniques, but also the methodology of game programming, step by step. The practical VFX processing techniques introduced in this book will provide very helpful information to game programmers. Due to the lack of instructional books about VFX-related game programming, the demand for knowledge regarding these high-tech VFXs might be very high.

This innovative monograph focuses on a contemporary form of computer-based literature called 'literary hypertext', a digital, interactive, communicative form of new media writing. Canonizing Hypertext combines theoretical and hermeneutic investigations with empirical research into the motivational and pedagogic possibilities of this form of literature. It focuses on key questions for literary scholars and teachers: How can literature be taught in such a way as to make it relevant for an increasingly hypermedia-oriented readership? How can the rapidly evolving new media be integrated into curricula that still seek to transmit traditional literary competence? How can the notion of literary competence be broadened to take into account these current trends? This study, which argues for hypertexts integration in the literary canon, offers a critical overview of developments in hypertext theory, an exemplary hypertext canon and an evaluation of possible classroom applications.

This book features a collection of high-quality, peer-reviewed research papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Innovations in Computer Science & Engineering (ICICSE 2019), held at Guru Nanak Institutions, Hyderabad, India, on 16-17 August 2019. Written by researchers from academia and industry, the book discusses a wide variety of industrial, engineering, and scientific applications of the emerging techniques in the field of computer science.

This book discusses computational complexity of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoders with coverage extending from the analysis of HEVC compression efficiency and computational complexity to the reduction and scaling of its encoding complexity. After an introduction to the topic and a review of the state-of-the-art research in the field, the authors provide a detailed analysis of the HEVC encoding tools compression efficiency and computational complexity. Readers will benefit from a set of algorithms for scaling the computational complexity of HEVC encoders, all of which take advantage from the flexibility of the frame partitioning structures allowed by the standard. The authors also provide a set of early termination methods based on data mining and machine learning techniques, which are able to reduce the computational complexity required to find the best frame partitioning structures. The applicability of the proposed methods is finally exemplified with an encoding time control system that employs the best complexity reduction and scaling methods presented throughout the book. The methods presented in this book are especially useful in power-constrained, portable multimedia devices to reduce energy consumption and to extend battery life. They can also be applied to portable and non-portable multimedia devices operating in real time with limited computational resources.

"Digital Preservation Technology for Cultural Heritage" discusses the technology and processes in digital preservation of cultural heritage. It covers topics in five major areas: Digitization of cultural heritage; Digital management in the cultural heritage preservation; Restoration techniques for rigid solid relics; Restoration techniques for paintings; Digital museum. It also includes application examples for digital preservation of cultural heritage.

The book is intended for researchers, advanced undergraduate and graduate students in Computer Graphics and Image Processing as well as Cultural heritage preservation.

Mingquan Zhou is a professor at the College of Information Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, China. Guohua Geng is a professor at the College of Information Science and Technology, Northwest University, Xi'an, China. Zhongke Wu is a professor at the College of Information Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, China.

This book presents a methodology to model and specify the data aspect of Web services, as it is overlooked by current standards for specifying Web services. The formal specification enables verification of service behavior, and the proposed methodology is based on formal methods and design-by-contract techniques. The Web has evolved from an information sharing medium to a wide-scale environment for sharing capabilities or services. Currently, URLs not only point to documents and images, but are also used to invoke services that potentially change the state of the Web. Major online organizations today, such as Amazon, PayPal and FedEx, provide services for users and consumers. They also allow third-party vendors to resell their services. In both cases, this requires precise and complete specification of service offerings. Several online discussions demonstrate the challenges faced by these organizations and others while describing their data-centric Web services. These challenges surrounding data specification can lead consumers to use a service erroneously. Case studies demonstrate how formal methods, and specifically design-by-contract techniques, can be leveraged to address the lack of formal specification of data when it comes to developing Web applications such as Amazon and PayPal.

This book focuses on recent technical advancements and state-of-the art technologies for analyzing characteristic features and probabilistic modelling of complex social networks and decentralized online network architectures. Such research results in applications related to surveillance and privacy, fraud analysis, cyber forensics, propaganda campaigns, as well as for online social networks such as Facebook. The text illustrates the benefits of using advanced social network analysis methods through application case studies based on practical test results from synthetic and real-world data. This book will appeal to researchers and students working in these areas.

Who are we in simulated worlds? Will experiencing worlds that are not 'actual' change our ways of structuring thought? Can virtual worlds open up new possibilities to philosophize? Virtual Worlds as Philosophical Tools tries to answer these questions from a perspective that combines philosophy of technology with videogame design.

Call Admission Control (CAC) and Dynamic Channel Assignments (DCA) are important decision-making problems in mobile cellular communication systems. Current research in mobile communication considers them as two independent problems, although the former greatly depends on the resulting free channels obtained as the outcome of the latter. This book provides a solution to the CAC problem, considering DCA as an integral part of decision-making for call admission. Further, current technical resources ignore movement issues of mobile stations and fluctuation in network load (incoming calls) in the control strategy used for call admission. In addition, the present techniques on call admission offers solution globally for the entire network, instead of considering the cells independently. CAC here has been formulated by two alternative approaches. The first approach aimed at handling the uncertainty in the CAC problem by employing fuzzy comparators. The second approach is concerned with formulation of CAC as an optimization problem to minimize call drop, satisfying a set of constraints on feasibility and availability of channels, hotness of cells, and velocity and angular displacement of mobile stations. Evolutionary techniques, including Genetic Algorithm and Biogeography Based Optimization, have been employed to solve the optimization problems. The proposed approaches outperform traditional methods with respect to grade and quality of services.

Despite solid advances, numerous challenges have yet to be resolved by Web services-enabled service-oriented architecture systems. Web Services Security Development and Architecture: Theoretical and Practical Issues explores a global approach to methodical development in constructing safety architectures for online systems. Addressing security concerns during the full development lifecycle of Web services-based systems, this critical mass of the most sought after knowledge bridges the gap between practical and theoretical approaches in the field.

Rapid development of digital technologies has led to the widespread use of software in all aspects of our life. The degree of reliance that can be justifiably placed on software-intensive systems is expressed by the notion of dependability. The complexity of modern software-intensive systems poses the greatest threat to dependability. Furthermore, software the most complex system component is recognized to be the most error-prone part of the system. Dependability and Computer Engineering: Concepts for Software-Intensive Systems offers a state-of-the-art overview of the dependability research, from engineering various software-intensive systems to validating existing IT-frameworks and solving generic and particular problems related to the dependable use of IT in our society. It is important to understand how dependability is manifested in software-intensive systems, how it is developed, and how it can be enhanced at various levels in systems and organizations. This book uncovers the existing research on the topic as well as the key challenges associated with the engineering of dependable IT systems in the future.

A 3D user interface (3DUI) is an interface in which the user performs tasks in three dimensions. For example, interactions using hand/body gestures, interaction using a motion controller (e.g. Sony PlayStation Move), interaction with virtual reality devices using tracked motion controllers, etc. All these technologies which let a user interact in three dimensions are called 3D user interface technologies. These 3D user interfaces have the potential to make games more immersive & engaging and thus potentially provide a better user experience to gamers. Although 3D user interface technologies are available for games, it is unclear how their usage affects game play and if there are any user performance benefits. This book presents state of the art research on exploring 3D user interface technologies for improving video games. It also presents a review of research work done in this area and describes experiments focused on usage of stereoscopic 3D, head tracking, and hand gesture-based control in gaming scenarios. These experiments are systematic studies in gaming environments and are aimed at understanding the effect of the underlined 3D interface technology on the gaming experience of a user. Based on these experiments, several design guidelines are presented which can aid game designers in designing better immersive games.

The book describes recent research results in the areas of modelling, creation, management and presentation of interactive 3D multimedia content. The book describes the current state of the art in the field and identifies the most important research and design issues. Consecutive chapters address these issues. These are: database modelling of 3D content, security in 3D environments, describing interactivity of content, searching content, visualization of search results, modelling mixed reality content, and efficient creation of interactive 3D content. Each chapter is illustrated with example applications based on the proposed approach. The final chapter discusses some important ethical issues related to the widespread use of virtual environments in everyday life. The book provides ready to use solutions for many important problems related to the creation of interactive 3D multimedia applications and will be a primary reading for researchers and developers working in this domain.

Computer technologies are forever evolving and it is vital that computer science educators find new methods of teaching programming in order to maintain the rapid changes occurring in the field. One of the ways to increase student engagement and retention is by integrating games into the curriculum. Gamification-Based E-Learning Strategies for Computer Programming Education evaluates the different approaches and issues faced in integrating games into computer education settings. Featuring emergent trends on the application of gaming to pedagogical strategies and technological tactics, as well as new methodologies and approaches being utilized in computer programming courses, this book is an essential reference source for practitioners, researchers, computer science teachers, and students pursuing computer science.

COOP 2012 is the tenth COOP conference, marking twenty years from the first conference in 1992. In this special anniversary edition we asked researchers and practitioners to reflect on what have been the successes and the failures in designing cooperative systems, and what challenges still need to be addressed. We have come a long way in understanding the intricacies of cooperation and in designing systems that support work practices and collective activities. These advances would not have been possible without the concerted effort of contributions from a plethora of domains including CSCW, HCI, Information Systems, Knowledge Engineering, Multi-agent systems, organizational and management sciences, sociology, psychology, anthropology, ergonomics, linguistics, etc. The COOP community is going from strength to strength in developing new technologies, advancing and proposing new methodological approaches, and forging theories.

Working with Sound is an exploration of the ever-changing working practices of audio development in the era of hybrid collaboration in the games industry. Through learnings from the pre-pandemic remote and isolated worlds of audio work, sound designers, composers and dialogue designers find themselves equipped uniquely to thrive in the hybrid, remote, and studio-based realms of today's fast-evolving working landscapes. With unique insights into navigating the worlds of isolation and collaboration, this book explores ways of thinking and working in this world, equipping the reader with inspiration to sustainably tackle the many stages of the development process. Working with Sound is an essential guide for professionals working in dynamic audio teams of all sizes, as well as the designers, producers, artists, animators and programmers who collaborate closely with their colleagues working on game audio and sound.