This book presents an overview of the technical underpinnings in the field of digital media. This includes theory, imaging, big data, interaction, and the research and development that is needed in order to make digital media interfaces more natural and easy to use. Grant funding sources for R & D are detailed and current priority areas are summarized. Developments in the relevant commercial areas are also reviewed. This is Professor Earnshaw's fifth book in the series on digital media and its applications and creative uses. These books explain the significance and importance of digital media and how it has developed and advanced.They also explore the impact digital media is having on a range of domains including art and design, the creative industries, visual analytics, big data, and digital humanities.The convergence of IT, telecommunications and media is bringing about a revolution in the way information is being collected, stored, accessed and distributed. Digital media is expected to play an increasing role in these processes. State of the art digital technologies are increasingly utilized in order to deliver to the user requirements and also to be effective and efficient in this delivery, given the increasing demands by users and other third parties involved in the content creation and service delivery pipeline. Research and Development in Digital Media will be invaluable for readers that want a summary of the technical research and development aspects of digital media, how such work is being funded, and the kind of changes in digital media provision that may result.

Applications of Fractals and Chaos presents new developments in this rapidlydeveloping subject area. The presentation is more than merely theoretical, it specifically presents particular applications in a wide range of applications areas. Under the oceans, we consider the ways in which sponges and corals grow; we look, too, at the stability of ships on their surfaces. Land itself is modelled and applications to art, medicineand camouflage are presented. Readers should find general interest in the range of areas considered and should also be able to discover methods of value for their own specific areas of interest from studying the structure of related activities.

State of the Art in Computer Graphics Aspects of Visualization This is the fourth volume derived from a State of . . . the Art in Computer Graphics Summer Institute. It represents a snapshot of a number of topics in computer graphics, topics which include visualization of scientific data; modeling; some aspects of visualization in virtual reality; and hardware architectures for visu alization. Many papers first present a background introduction to the topic, followed by discussion of current work in the topic. The volume is thus equally suitable for nonspecialists in a particular area, and for the more experienced researcher in the field. It also enables general readers to obtain an acquaintance with a particular topic area sufficient to apply that knowledge in the context of solving current problems. The volume is organized into four chapters - Visualization of Data, Modeling, Virtual Reality Techniques, and Hardware Architectures for Visualization. In the first chapter, Val Watson and Pamela Walatka address the visual aspects of fluid dynamic computations. They discuss algorithms for function-mapped surfaces and cutting planes, isosurfaces, particle traces, and topology extractions. They point out that current visualization systems are limited by low information transfer bandwidth, poor response to viewing and model accuracy modification requests, mismatches between model rendering and human cognitive capabilities, and ineffective interactive tools. However, Watson and Walatka indicate that proposed systems will correct most of these problems.

Scientific visualization is concerned with exploring data and information insuch a way as to gain understanding and insight into the data. This is a fundamental objective of much scientific investigation. To achieve this goal, scientific visualization utilises aspects in the areas of computergraphics, user-interface methodology, image processing, system design, and signal processing. This volume is intended for readers new to the field and who require a quick and easy-to-read summary of what scientific visualization is and what it can do. Written in a popular andjournalistic style with many illustrations it will enable readers to appreciate the benefits of scientific visualization and how current tools can be exploited in many application areas. This volume is indispensible for scientists and research workers who have never used computer graphics or other visual tools before, and who wish to find out the benefitsand advantages of the new approaches.

"Advances in computer technology and developments such as the Internet provide a constant momentum to design new techniques and algorithms to support computer graphics. Modelling, animation and rendering remain principal topics in the filed of computer graphics and continue to attract researchers around the world." This volume contains the papers presented at Computer Graphics International 2002, in July, at the University of Bradford, UK. These papers represent original research in computer graphics from around the world and cover areas such as: - Real-time computer animation - Image based rendering - Non photo-realistic rendering - Virtual reality - Avatars - Geometric and solid modelling - Computational geometry - Physically based modelling - Graphics hardware architecture - Data visualisation - Data compression The focus is on the commercial application and industrial use of computer graphics and digital media systems.

The very word "digital" has acquired a status that far exceeds its humble dictionary definition. Even the prefix digital, when associ ated with familiar sectors such as radio, television, photography and telecommunications, has reinvented these industries, and provided a unique opportunity to refresh them with new start-up companies, equipment, personnel, training and working practices - all of which are vital to modern national and international economies. The last century was a period in which new media stimulated new job opportunities, and in many cases created totally new sectors: video competed with film, CDs transformed LPs, and computer graphics threatened traditional graphic design sectors. Today, even the need for a physical medium is in question. The virtual digital domain allows the capture, processing, transmission, storage, retrieval and display of text, images, audio and animation without familiar materials such as paper, celluloid, magnetic tape and plastic. But moving from these media to the digital domain intro duces all sorts of problems, such as the conversion of analog archives, multimedia databases, content-based retrieval and the design of new content that exploits the benefits offered by digital systems. It is this issue of digital content creation that we address in this book. Authors from around the world were invited to comment on different aspects of digital content creation, and their contributions form the 23 chapters of this volume.

The field of computer graphics combines display hardware, software, and interactive techniques in order to display and interact with data generated by applications. Visualization is concerned with exploring data and information graphically in such a way as to gain information from the data and determine significance. Visual analytics is the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces.

Expanding the Frontiers of Visual Analytics and Visualization provides a review of the state of the art in computer graphics, visualization, and visual analytics by researchers and developers who are closely involved in pioneering the latest advances in the field. It is a unique presentation of multi-disciplinary aspects in visualization and visual analytics, architecture and displays, augmented reality, the use of color, user interfaces and cognitive aspects, and technology transfer. It provides readers with insights into the latest developments in areas such as new displays and new display processors, new collaboration technologies, the role of visual, multimedia, and multimodal user interfaces, visual analysis at extreme scale, and adaptive visualization.

This volume presents the proceedings of the 7th International Confer ence of the Computer Graphics Society, CG International '89, held at the University of Leeds, UK, June 27-30, 1989. Since 1982 this confer ence has continued to attract high-quality research papers in all aspects of computer graphics and its applications. Originally the conference was held in Japan (1982-1987), but in 1988 was held in Geneva, Switzerland. Future conferences are planned for Singapore in 1990, USA in 1991, Japan in 1992, and Canada in 1993. Recent developments in computer graphics have concentrated on the following: greater sophistication of image generation techniques; advances in hardware and emphasis on the exploitation of parallelism, integration of robotics and AI techniques for animation, greater integ ration of CAD and CAM in CIM, use of powerful computer graphics techniques to represent complex physical processes (visualization), advances in computational geometry and in the representation and modelling of complex physical and mathematical objects, and improved tools and methods for HC . These trends and advances are reflected in this present volume. A number of papers deal with important research aspects in many of these areas."

Although the computer's life has been relatively short, it has brought about an information revolution that is transforming our world on a scale that is still difficult to comprehend. This digital convergence is shaping society, technology and the media for the next millennium. Areas as diverse as home banking and shopping over the Internet; WWW access over mobile phone networks; and television systems such as Web TV which combine on-line services with television. But convergence is not just about technology. It is also about services and new ways of doing business and of interacting with society. Digital convergence heralds the 'Information Revolution'. Edited by John Vince and Rae Earnshaw this important new book on Digital Convergence: The Information Revolution is an edited volume of papers, bringing together state-of-the-art developments in the Internet and World Wide Web and should be compulsory reading for all those interested in and working in those areas.

In the third paper in this chapter, Mike Pratt provides an historical intro duction to solid modeling. He presents the development of the three most freqently used techniques: cellular subdivision, constructive solid modeling and boundary representation. Although each of these techniques devel oped more or less independently, today the designer's needs dictate that a successful system allows access to all of these methods. For example, sculptured surfaces are generally represented using a boundary represen tation. However, the design of a complex vehicle generally dictates that a sculptured surface representation is most efficient for the 'skin' while constructive solid geometry representation is most efficent for the inter nal mechanism. Pratt also discusses the emerging concept of design by 'feature line'. Finally, he addresses the very important problem of data exchange between solid modeling systems and the progress that is being made towards developing an international standard. With the advent of reasonably low cost scientific workstations with rea sonable to outstanding graphics capabilities, scientists and engineers are increasingly turning to computer analysis for answers to fundamental ques tions and to computer graphics for present~tion of those answers. Although the current crop of workstations exhibit quite impressive computational ca pability, they are still not capable of solving many problems in a reasonable time frame, e. g. , executing computational fluid dynamics and finite element codes or generating complex ray traced or radiosity based images. In the sixth chapter Mike Muuss of the U. S.

Reviews 8 key areas which are focal points for current de- velopments. Theseare Design, Modeling, Image Generatiion, Workstations, VLSI, HCI, Graphics Standards, and Electronic Documentation.

Today one of the hardest parts of computer aided design or analysis is first modeling the design, then recording and verifying it. For example, a typical vehicle such as a tank, automobile, ship or aircraft might be composed of tens of thousands of individual parts. Many of these parts are composed of cylinders, flats, and simple conic curves and surfaces such as are amenable to modeling using a constructive solid geometry (CSG) approach. However, especially with the increasing use of composite materials, many parts are designed using sculp tured surfaces. A marriage of these two techniques in now critical to continued development of computer aided design and analysis. Further, the graphical user interfaces used in most modeling systems are at best barely adequate to the required task. Critical work on these interfaces is required to continue pushing back the frontiers. Similarly, once the design is modeled, how are the varied and diverse pieces stored, retrieved, and modified? How are physical interferences prevented or eliminated? Although considerable progress has been made, there are still more questions and frustrations than answers. One of the fundamental problems of the 1990s is and will continue to be modeling. The second problem is interpretation. With the ever increasing computational power available, our ability to generate data far exceeds our ability to interpret, understand, and utilize that data.

The collection of papers that makes up this book arises largely from the joint activities of two specialist groups of the British Computer Society, namely the Displays Group and the Computer Arts Society. Both these groups are now more than 20 years old and during the whole of this time have held regular, separate meetings. In recent years, however, the two groups have held a joint annual meeting at which presentations of mutual interest have been given and it is mainly from the last two of these that the present papers have been drawn. They fall naturally into four classes: visualisation, art, design and animation-although, as in all such cases, the boundaries between the classes are fuzzy and overlap inevitably occurs. Visualisation The graphic potential of computers has been recognised almost since computing was first used, but it is only comparatively recently that their possibilities as devices for the visualisation of complex. and largely ab stract phenomena has begun to be more fully appreciated. Some workers stress the need to be able to model photographic reality in order to assist in this task. They look to better algorithms and more resolution to achieve this end. Others-Alan Mackay for instance-suggest that it is "not just a matter of providing more and more pixels. It is a matter of providing congenial clues which employ to the greatest extent what we already know."

As the Internet and the WWW impact on corporate and private activities, the human-computer interface is becoming a central issue for the designers of these systems. Such interfaces will decide the success or failure of future technologies, which will have to provide users with easy-to-use 'intelligent' problem solving tools.
'Intelligent Agents' are likely to play a significant role in the design of these interfaces, and this book explores how they are starting to influence media-based systems.
As you read Intelligent Agents for Mobile and Virtual Media, you will discover the considerable advances that have already been made on the long journey towards a day when computers will be truly described as an intelligent aid to our personal and business lives.

The convergence of IT, telecommunications, and media is changing the way information is collected, stored and accessed. This revolution is having effects on the development and organisation of information and artefact repositories such as libraries and museums. This book presents key aspects in the rapidly moving field of digital convergence in the areas of technology and information sciences. Its chapters are written by international experts who are leaders in their fields.

This volume presents state-of-the-art research from a wide area of subjects brought about by the digital convergence of computing, television, telecommunications and the World-Wide Web. It represents a unique snapshot of trends across a wide range of subjects including virtual environments; virtual reality; telepresence; human-computer interface design; interactivity; avatars; and the Internet. Both researchers and practitioners will find it an invaluable source of reference.

"Advances in computer technology and developments such as the Internet provide a constant momentum to design new techniques and algorithms to support computer graphics. Modelling, animation and rendering remain principal topics in the filed of computer graphics and continue to attract researchers around the world." This volume contains the papers presented at Computer Graphics International 2002, in July, at the University of Bradford, UK. These papers represent original research in computer graphics from around the world and cover areas such as:- Real-time computer animation - Image based rendering - Non photo-realistic rendering - Virtual reality - Avatars - Geometric and solid modelling - Computational geometry - Physically based modelling - Graphics hardware architecture - Data visualisation - Data compression The focus is on the commercial application and industrial use of computer graphics and digital media systems.

In the third paper in this chapter, Mike Pratt provides an historical intro duction to solid modeling. He presents the development of the three most freqently used techniques: cellular subdivision, constructive solid modeling and boundary representation. Although each of these techniques devel oped more or less independently, today the designer's needs dictate that a successful system allows access to all of these methods. For example, sculptured surfaces are generally represented using a boundary represen tation. However, the design of a complex vehicle generally dictates that a sculptured surface representation is most efficient for the 'skin' while constructive solid geometry representation is most efficent for the inter nal mechanism. Pratt also discusses the emerging concept of design by 'feature line'. Finally, he addresses the very important problem of data exchange between solid modeling systems and the progress that is being made towards developing an international standard. With the advent of reasonably low cost scientific workstations with rea sonable to outstanding graphics capabilities, scientists and engineers are increasingly turning to computer analysis for answers to fundamental ques tions and to computer graphics for present~tion of those answers. Although the current crop of workstations exhibit quite impressive computational ca pability, they are still not capable of solving many problems in a reasonable time frame, e. g. , executing computational fluid dynamics and finite element codes or generating complex ray traced or radiosity based images. In the sixth chapter Mike Muuss of the U. S.

The virtual digital domain allows the capture, processing, transmission, storage, retrieval and display of text, images, audio and animation, without familiar materials such as paper, celluloid, magnetic tape and plastic. But moving from these media to the digital domain introduces all sorts of problems, such as the conversion of analogue archives, multimedia databases, content-based retrieval and the design of new content that exploits the benefits offered by digital systems. It is this issue of digital content creation that is addressed in this book.Different aspects of digital content creation are discussed in this volume, contributed by authors from around the world. Although each chapter addresses an individual aspect of the digital domain, there are common threads that unite them into an exciting vision of the future.

State of the Art in Computer Graphics Aspects of Visualization This is the fourth volume derived from a State of . . . the Art in Computer Graphics Summer Institute. It represents a snapshot of a number of topics in computer graphics, topics which include visualization of scientific data; modeling; some aspects of visualization in virtual reality; and hardware architectures for visu alization. Many papers first present a background introduction to the topic, followed by discussion of current work in the topic. The volume is thus equally suitable for nonspecialists in a particular area, and for the more experienced researcher in the field. It also enables general readers to obtain an acquaintance with a particular topic area sufficient to apply that knowledge in the context of solving current problems. The volume is organized into four chapters - Visualization of Data, Modeling, Virtual Reality Techniques, and Hardware Architectures for Visualization. In the first chapter, Val Watson and Pamela Walatka address the visual aspects of fluid dynamic computations. They discuss algorithms for function-mapped surfaces and cutting planes, isosurfaces, particle traces, and topology extractions. They point out that current visualization systems are limited by low information transfer bandwidth, poor response to viewing and model accuracy modification requests, mismatches between model rendering and human cognitive capabilities, and ineffective interactive tools. However, Watson and Walatka indicate that proposed systems will correct most of these problems.

Algorithms provide the basic foundation for all computational processes. This volume presents algorithms at the foundational level and also at the various levels between this level and the user application. Some of these algorithms are classical and have become well established in the field. This material is therefore a rich source of information and is still relevant and up to date. The basic primitives of computer graphics have remained unchanged: lines, circles, conics, curves and characters. This volume contains reference material in all these areas. The higher levelsof contouring and surface drawing are also well covered. Developments in hardware architectures have continued since the first printing, but the basic principles of hardware/software trade-offs remain valid. This reprint is being published as a Study Edition to make the material more accessible to students and researchers in the field of computer graphics andits applications. The continuing popularity of the original book demonstrates the value and timeliness of its contents.

Today one of the hardest parts of computer aided design or analysis is first modeling the design, then recording and verifying it. For example, a typical vehicle such as a tank, automobile, ship or aircraft might be composed of tens of thousands of individual parts. Many of these parts are composed of cylinders, flats, and simple conic curves and surfaces such as are amenable to modeling using a constructive solid geometry (CSG) approach. However, especially with the increasing use of composite materials, many parts are designed using sculp tured surfaces. A marriage of these two techniques in now critical to continued development of computer aided design and analysis. Further, the graphical user interfaces used in most modeling systems are at best barely adequate to the required task. Critical work on these interfaces is required to continue pushing back the frontiers. Similarly, once the design is modeled, how are the varied and diverse pieces stored, retrieved, and modified? How are physical interferences prevented or eliminated? Although considerable progress has been made, there are still more questions and frustrations than answers. One of the fundamental problems of the 1990s is and will continue to be modeling. The second problem is interpretation. With the ever increasing computational power available, our ability to generate data far exceeds our ability to interpret, understand, and utilize that data.

The collection of papers that makes up this book arises largely from the joint activities of two specialist groups of the British Computer Society, namely the Displays Group and the Computer Arts Society. Both these groups are now more than 20 years old and during the whole of this time have held regular, separate meetings. In recent years, however, the two groups have held a joint annual meeting at which presentations of mutual interest have been given and it is mainly from the last two of these that the present papers have been drawn. They fall naturally into four classes: visualisation, art, design and animation-although, as in all such cases, the boundaries between the classes are fuzzy and overlap inevitably occurs. Visualisation The graphic potential of computers has been recognised almost since computing was first used, but it is only comparatively recently that their possibilities as devices for the visualisation of complex. and largely ab stract phenomena has begun to be more fully appreciated. Some workers stress the need to be able to model photographic reality in order to assist in this task. They look to better algorithms and more resolution to achieve this end. Others-Alan Mackay for instance-suggest that it is "not just a matter of providing more and more pixels. It is a matter of providing congenial clues which employ to the greatest extent what we already know.

This is an open access book. Creativity is a difficult concept, how can it best be defined, understood, applied, and practiced? This book provides important answers to these questions. Technology can enable artists to be more creative. Scientific and artistic thinking give us two complementary tools to understand the complexity of the world, with science reducing subjective experience to essential principles and art intensifying and expanding our experiences. These examples also show how artists can push the boundaries of technology into exciting new realms that have not been explored before. The impact that art and art practice can have on culture, society, and social responsibility is explored in detail through examples and case studies. In addition, the book presents how artists are creating and reflecting cultural and societal resonance in their work. Can other disciplines help artists to be more creative? All are part of an interrelated wider society and enables artists to develop artwork fit for highly interfaced and conceptually broad contemporary contexts. This is illustrated with examples which show exciting and challenging results. Creativity in Art, Design and Technology is relevant for artists, designers, scientists and technologists. All can benefit in a major way from a greater understanding of creativity, and the ways in which mutual interaction and collaboration enables all areas to develop. The potential for the future is immense and this book signposts the way forward.

Data science addresses the need to extract knowledge and information from data volumes, often from real-time sources in a wide variety of disciplines such as astronomy, bioinformatics, engineering, science, medicine, social science, business, and the humanities. The range and volume of data sources has increased enormously over time, particularly those generating real-time data. This has posed additional challenges for data management and data analysis of the data and effective representation and display. A wide range of application areas are able to benefit from the latest visual tools and facilities. Rapid analysis is needed in areas where immediate decisions need to be made. Such areas include weather forecasting, the stock exchange, and security threats. In areas where the volume of data being produced far exceeds the current capacity to analyze all of it, attention is being focussed how best to address these challenges. Optimum ways of addressing large data sets across a variety of disciplines have led to the formation of national and institutional Data Science Institutes and Centers. Being driven by national priority, they are able to attract support for research and development within their organizations and institutions to bring together interdisciplinary expertise to address a wide variety of problems. Visual computing is a set of tools and methodologies that utilize 2D and 3D images to extract information from data. Such methods include data analysis, simulation, and interactive exploration. These are analyzed and discussed.