Locating Imagination in Popular Culture offers a multi-disciplinary account of the ways in which popular culture, tourism and notions of place intertwine in an environment characterized by ongoing processes of globalization, digitization and an increasingly ubiquitous nature of multi-media. Centred around the concept of imagination, the authors demonstrate how popular culture and media are becoming increasingly important in the ways in which places and localities are imagined, and how they also subsequently stimulate a desire to visit the actual places in which people's favourite stories are set. With examples drawn from around the globe, the book offers a unique study of the role of narratives conveyed through media in stimulating and reflecting desire in tourism. This book will have appeal in a wide variety of academic disciplines, ranging from media and cultural studies to fan- and tourism studies, cultural geography, literary studies and cultural sociology.

From Pong to virtual reality, Understanding Video Games, 4th Edition, takes video game studies into the next decade of the twenty-first century, highlighting changes in the area, including mobile, social, and casual gaming. In this new edition of the pioneering text, students learn to assess the major theories used to analyze games, such as ludology and narratology, and gain familiarity with the commercial and organizational aspects of the game industry. Drawing from historical and contemporary examples, the student-friendly text also explores the aesthetics of games, evaluates the cultural position of video games, and considers the potential effects of both violent and "serious" games. Extensively illustrated and featuring discussion questions, a glossary of key terms, and a detailed video game history timeline, this new edition is an indispensable resource for students, scholars, and teachers interested in examining the ways video games continue to reshape entertainment and society.

Understanding Java from the JVM up gives you a solid foundation to grow your expertise and take on advanced techniques for performance, concurrency, containerization, and more. In The Well-Grounded Java Developer, Second Edition you will learn: The new Java module system and why you should use it Bytecode for the JVM, including operations and classloading Performance tuning the JVM Working with Java's built-in concurrency and expanded options Programming in Kotlin and Clojure on the JVM Maximizing the benefits from your build/CI tooling with Maven and Gradle Running the JVM in containers Planning for future JVM releases The Well-Grounded Java Developer, Second Edition introduces both the modern innovations and timeless fundamentals you need to know to become a Java master. Authors Ben Evans, Martijn Verburg, and Jason Clark distil their decades of experience as Java Champions, veteran developers, and key contributors to the Java ecosystem into this clear and practical guide. about the technology Java's history of innovation, its huge collection of libraries and frameworks, and the flexibility of the JVM have cemented its place as one of the world's most popular programming languages. Although it's easy to get started with Java, understanding how the language intersects with the JVM is the key to unlocking the power of this awesome language and its deep ecosystem of frameworks, tools, and alternative JVM-based languages. about the book The Well-Grounded Java Developer, Second Edition is a complete revision of the classic original with the latest innovations of the Java platform. It upgrades your existing Java skills with both JVM fundamentals like bytecode, and powerful new features such as modules and concurrency models. You'll broaden your understanding of what's possible by exploring Kotlin and other JVM languages, and learn how functional programming can offer a powerful new perspective. Each concept is illustrated with hands-on examples, including a fully modularized application/library, build setups for Maven and Gradle, and creating your own multithreaded application.

The Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) movement demonstrates how labour can self-organise production, and, as is shown by the free operating system GNU/Linux, even compete with some of the worlds largest firms. The book examines the hopes of such thinkers as Friedrich Schiller, Karl Marx, Herbert Marcuse and Antonio Negri, in the light of the recent achievements of the hacker movement. This book is the first to examine a different kind of political activism that consists in the development of technology from below.

The book offers information about the iOS platform. It explains the use of OpenGL ES for 2D/3D graphics and OpenAL for sound, both of which are recommended for game performance on the iOS platform. It covers new APIs such as the GLKit, GameKit, and Box2D Physics Engine.

The ubiquity of computer-generated imagery around us, in movies, advertising or on the Internet is already being taken for granted and what impresses most people is the photorealistic quality of the images. Pictures, as we have often been told, are worth a thousand words and the information transported by an image can take many different forms. Many computer graphics researchers are exploring non-photorealistic rendering techniques as an alternative to realistic rendering. Defined by what it is not, non-photorealistic rendering brings art and science together, concentrating less on the process and more on the communication content of an image. Techniques that have long been used by artists can be applied to computer graphics to emphasize subtle attributes and to omit extraneous information. This book provides an overview of the published research on non-photorealistic rendering in order to categorize and distill the current research into a body of usable techniques. A summary of some of the algorithms as well as pseudo-code for producing some of the images is included.

Data structures and tools from computational geometry help to solve problems in computer graphics; these methods have been widely adopted by the computer graphics community yielding elegant and efficient algorithms. This book focuses on algorithms and data structures that have proven to be versatile, efficient, fundamental, and easy to implement. The book familiarizes students, as well as practitioners in the field of computer graphics, with a wide range of data structures. The authors describe each data structure in detail, highlight fundamental properties, and present algorithms based on the data structure. A number of recent representative and useful algorithms from computer graphics are described in detail, illuminating the utilization of the data structure in a creative way.

Putting the G into CAGD, the authors provide a much-needed practical and basic introduction to computer-aided geometric design. This book will help readers understand and use the elements of computer-aided geometric design, curves and surfaces, without the mathematical baggage that is necessary only for more advanced work. Though only minimal background in mathematics is needed to understand the bookis concepts, the book covers an amazing array of topics such as Bezier and B-spline curves and their corresponding surfaces, subdivision surfaces, and NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines). Also included are techniques such as interpolation and least squares methods.

This book addresses the new possibilities that are becoming available in games technology through the development of programmable hardware. It is helpful for students of game technology and established game programmers and developers who want to update their expertise to the new technology.

Revised and updated, the second edition includes several new chapters with projects and applications. The authors keep pace with the ever-growing and rapidly expanding field of robotics. The new edition reflects technological developments and includes programs and activities for robot enthusiasts. Using photographs, illustrations, and informative text, Mobile Robots guides the reader through the step-by-step process of constructing two different and inexpensive yet fully functional robots.

For junior- to graduate-level courses in computer graphics. Assuming no background in computer graphics, this junior- to graduate-level textbook presents basic principles for the design, use, and understanding of computer graphics systems and applications. The authors, authorities in their field, offer an integrated approach to two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics topics. A comprehensive explanation of the popular OpenGL programming package, along with C++ programming examples illustrates applications of the various functions in the OpenGL basic library and the related GLU and GLUT packages.

Computer Systems Architecture provides IT professionals and students with the necessary understanding of computer hardware. It addresses the ongoing issues related to computer hardware and discusses the solutions supplied by the industry. The book describes trends in computing solutions that led to the current available infrastructures, tracing the initial need for computers to recent concepts such as the Internet of Things. It covers computers' data representation, explains how computer architecture and its underlying meaning changed over the years, and examines the implementations and performance enhancements of the central processing unit (CPU). It then discusses the organization, hierarchy, and performance considerations of computer memory as applied by the operating system and illustrates how cache memory significantly improves performance. The author proceeds to explore the bus system, algorithms for ensuring data integrity, input and output (I/O) components, methods for performing I/O, various aspects relevant to software engineering, and nonvolatile storage devices, such as hard drives and technologies for enhancing performance and reliability. He also describes virtualization and cloud computing and the emergence of software-based systems' architectures. Accessible to software engineers and developers as well as students in IT disciplines, this book enhances readers' understanding of the hardware infrastructure used in software engineering projects. It enables readers to better optimize system usage by focusing on the principles used in hardware systems design and the methods for enhancing performance.

Architecture for the Commons dives into an analysis of how the tectonics of a building is fundamentally linked to the economic organizations that allow them to exist. By tracing the origins and promises of current technological practices in design, the book provides an alternative path, one that reconsiders the means of achieving complexity through combinatorial strategies. This move requires reconsidering serial production with crowdsourcing and user content in mind. The ideas presented will be explored through the design research developed within Plethora Project, a design practice that explores the use of video game interfaces as a mechanism for participation and user design. The research work presented throughout the book seeks to align with a larger project that is currently taking place in many different fields: The Construction of the Commons. By developing both the ideological and physical infrastructure, the project of the Commons has become an antidote to current economic practices that perpetuate inequality. The mechanisms of the production and governance of the Commons are discussed, inviting the reader to get involved and participate in the discussion. The current political and economic landscape calls for a reformulation of our current economic practices and alternative value systems that challenge the current market monopolies. This book will be of great interest not only to architects and designers studying the impact of digital technologies in the field of design but also to researchers studying novel techniques for social participation and cooperating of communities through digital networks. The book connects principles of architecture, economics and social sciences to provide alternatives to the current production trends.

This book is an introduction to development with HTML5 game engines, an in-depth look at some popular engines, downloadable example projects for each engine, and techniques on how to package and distribute the final app to all the major platforms.

While there are sporadic journal articles on socio-technical networks, there's long been a need for an integrated resource that addresses concrete socio-technical network (STN) design issues from algorithmic and engineering perspectives. Filling this need, Socio-Technical Networks: Science and Engineering Design provides a complete introduction to the fundamentals of one of the hottest research areas across the social sciences, networking, and computer science -- including its definition, historical background, and models. Covering basic STN architecture from a physical/technological perspective, the book considers the system design process in a typical STN, including inputs, processes/actions, and outputs/products. It covers current applications, including transportation networks, energy systems, tele-healthcare, financial networks, and the World Wide Web. A group of STN expert contributors addresses privacy and security topics in the interdependent context of critical infrastructure, which include risk models, trust models, and privacy preserving schemes. * Covers the physical and technological designs in a typical STN * Considers STN applications in popular fields, such as healthcare and the virtual community * Details a method for mapping and measuring complexity, uncertainty, and interactions among STN components The book examines the most important STN models, including graph theory, inferring agent dynamics, decision theory, and information mining. It also explains structural studies, behavioral studies, and agent/actor system studies and policy studies in different STN contexts. Complete with in-depth case studies, this book supplies the practical insight needed to address contemporary STN design issues.

Disability and New Media examines how digital design is triggering disability when it could be a solution. Video and animation now play a prominent role in the World Wide Web and new types of protocols have been developed to accommodate this increasing complexity. However, as this has happened, the potential for individual users to control how the content is displayed has been diminished. Accessibility choices are often portrayed as merely technical decisions but they are highly political and betray a disturbing trend of ableist assumption that serve to exclude people with disability. It has been argued that the Internet will not be fully accessible until disability is considered a cultural identity in the same way that class, gender and sexuality are. Kent and Ellis build on this notion using more recent Web 2.0 phenomena, social networking sites, virtual worlds and file sharing. Many of the studies on disability and the web have focused on the early web, prior to the development of social networking applications such as Facebook, YouTube and Second Life. This book discusses an array of such applications that have grown within and alongside Web 2.0, and analyzes how they both prevent and embrace the inclusion of people with disability.

The first MATLAB (R) programming book written specifically for clinical radiotherapy medical physicists and medical physics trainees, this much-needed book teaches users how to create their own clinical applications using MATLAB (R), as a complement to commercial software particularly when the latter does not cover specific local clinical needs. Chapters explore key radiotherapy areas such as handling volumes, 3D dose calculation, comparing dose distributions, reconstructing treatment plans and their summations, and automated tests for machine quality assurance. Readers will learn to independently analyse and process images, doses, structures, and other radiotherapy clinical data to deal with standard and non-standard situations in radiotherapy. This book will also significantly improve understanding of areas such as data nature, information content, DICOM RT standard, and data flow. It will be an invaluable reference for students of medical physics, in addition to clinical radiotherapy physicists and researchers working in radiotherapy. Features: Includes real clinical medical physics applications derived from actual clinical problems Provides commented MATLAB (R) scripts working with sample data and/or own data matching input requirements Promotes critical thinking and practical problem solving skills

While the extensible markup language (XML) has received a great deal of attention in web programming and software engineering, far less attention has been paid to XML in mainstream computational science and engineering. Correcting this imbalance, XML in Scientific Computing introduces XML to scientists and engineers in a way that illustrates the similarities and differences with traditional programming languages and suggests new ways of saving and sharing the results of scientific calculations. The author discusses XML in the context of scientific computing, demonstrates how the extensible stylesheet language (XSL) can be used to perform various calculations, and explains how to create and navigate through XML documents using traditional languages such as Fortran, C++, and MATLAB (R). A suite of computer programs are available on the author's website.

Python ist eine der beliebtesten und vielseitigsten Programmiersprachen A1/4berhaupt. FA1/4r viele Entwickler fA1/4hrt deshalb kein Weg an Python vorbei. SchApfen Sie mit diesem Buch aus dem reichen Erfahrungsschatz zweier langjAhriger Softwareentwickler. Sie lernen zunAchst die Syntax der Sprache und vertiefen dann das Erlernte anhand von konkreten Aufgabenstellungen. FA1/4r den Blick A1/4ber den Tellerrand sorgen Kapitel zu Programmierparadigmen, Code-QualitAt, Test-AnsAtzen und Dokumentation. Jede Menge Tipps und Tricks und ein breites Spektrum an Beispielen lassen Sie zu einem wahren Python-Profi werden.

Implementing physical simulations for real-time games is a complex task that requires a solid understanding of a wide range of concepts from the fields of mathematics, physics, and software engineering. This book is a gems-like collection of practical articles in the area of game physics. Each provides hands-on detail that can be used in practical applications.

The chapters cover topics such as collision detection, particle-based simulations, constraint solving, and soft-body simulation. An introductory section provides the mathematical foundations and offers some background for the problems inherent in successful physics simulation. The contributors write based on their experience in developing tools and runtime libraries either in game companies or middleware houses that produce physics software for games on PCs and consoles.

Arduino programming for the absolute beginner, with project-based learning Adventures in Arduino is the beginner's guide to Arduino programming, designed specifically for 11-to 15-year olds who want to learn about Arduino, but don't know where to begin. Starting with the most basic concepts, this book coaches you through nine great projects that gradually build your skills as you experiment with electronics. The easy-to-follow design and clear, plain-English instructions make this book the ideal guide for the absolute beginner, geared toward those with no computing experience. Each chapter includes a video illuminating the material, giving you plenty of support on your journey to electronics programming. Arduino is a cheap, readily available hardware development platform based around an open source, programmable circuit board. Combining these chips with sensors and servos allows you to gain experience with prototyping as you build interactive electronic crafts to bring together data and even eTextiles. Adventures in Arduino gets you started on the path of scientists, programmers, and engineers, showing you the fun way to learn electronic programming and interaction design. * Discover how and where to begin Arduino programming * Develop the skills and confidence to tackle other projects * Make the most of Arduino with basic programming concepts * Work with hardware and software to create interactive electronic devices There's nothing like watching your design come to life and interact with the real world, and Arduino gives you the capability to do that time and again. The right knowledge combined with the right tools can create an unstoppable force of innovation, and your curiosity is the spark that ignites the flame. Adventures in Arduino gets you started on the right foot, but the path is totally up to you.

Algorithms that control the computational processes relating sensors and actuators are indispensable for robot navigation and the perception of the world in which they move. Therefore, a deep understanding of how algorithms work to achieve this control is essential for the development of efficient and usable robots in a broad field of applications. An interdisciplinary group of scientists gathers every two years to document the progress in algorithmic foundations of robotics. This volume addresses in particular the areas of control theory, computational and differential geometry in robotics, and applications to core problems such as motion planning, navigation, sensor-based planning, and manipulation.

In today's market, where rival web services compete for attention, a well-designed REST API is a must-have feature. This concise book presents a set of API design rules, drawn primarily from best practices that stick close to the Web's REST architectural style. Along with rules for URI design and HTTP use, you'll learn guidelines for media types and representational forms.

REST APIs are ubiquitous, but few of them follow a consistent design methodology. Using these simple rules, you will design web service APIs that adhere to recognized web standards. To assist you, author Mark Masse introduces the Web Resource Modeling Language (WRML), a conceptual framework he created for the design and implementation of REST APIs.Learn design rules for addressing resources with URIsApply design principles to HTTP's request methods and response status codesWork with guidelines for conveying metadata through HTTP headers and media typesGet design tips to address the needs of client programs, including the special needs of browser-based JavaScript clientsUnderstand why REST APIs should be designed and configured, not coded

Numerical and Analytical Methods with MATLAB? presents extensive coverage of the MATLAB programming language for engineers. It demonstrates how the built-in functions of MATLAB can be used to solve systems of linear equations, ODEs, roots of transcendental equations, statistical problems, optimization problems, control systems problems, and stress analysis problems. These built-in functions are essentially black boxes to students. By combining MATLAB with basic numerical and analytical techniques, the mystery of what these black boxes might contain is somewhat alleviated.

This classroom-tested text first reviews the essentials involved in writing computer programs as well as fundamental aspects of MATLAB. It next explains how matrices can solve problems of linear equations, how to obtain the roots of algebraic and transcendental equations, how to evaluate integrals, and how to solve various ODEs. After exploring the features of Simulink, the book discusses curve fitting, optimization problems, and PDE problems, such as the vibrating string, unsteady heat conduction, and sound waves. The focus then shifts to the solution of engineering problems via iteration procedures, differential equations via Laplace transforms, and stress analysis problems via the finite element method. The final chapter examines control systems theory, including the design of single-input single-output (SISO) systems.

Two Courses in One Textbook
The first six chapters are appropriate for a lower level course at the sophomore level. The remaining chapters are ideal for a course at the senior undergraduate or first-year graduate level. Most of the chapters contain projects that require students to write a computer program in MATLAB that produces tables, graphs, or both. Many sample MATLAB programs (scripts) in the text provide guidance on completing these projects.