Just a few years ago, virtual reality was regarded as more a toy than a tool. Today, however, it is becoming the enabling technology for man-machine communications. The rapid development of graphics hardware and soft ware makes its application possible. Besides building walkthroughs and landscape fly-overs with very realistic visual effects, we can recognize the trend toward industrial applications. This is because of the emerging need for tools for rapid product development. Especially in the aeronautical and automotive industries, companies have began to investigate and develop virtual reality tools for their own needs in co-operation with research or ganizations. In co-operation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics (IGD), the Computer Graphics Center (ZGDV) in Darmstadt established the German working group on virtual reality in 1993 as a forum for infor mation exchange between industry and research. German researchers, system developers, and industrial users have met several times in Darm stadt at the Computer Graphics Center. In these meetings they discussed the essential issues inherent in applying virtual reality to industrial appli cations and exchanged their latest research results and experiences.

Based on the Chinese folk tale 'Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai', this romantic tragedy portrays 'Romeo and Juliet' from a distinctly Chinese angle, with its two star-crossed lovers facing the obstacle of a class-based arranged marriage and the archaic idea that 'a virtuous woman is one without any talent.' Their fateful convergence begins as the heroine, Yingtai, escapes from her imprisonment in a home where she is not valued and disguises herself as a man, only to fall passionately in love with Shanbo, the poor young scholar she comes to live and study with while she is in disguise. Yingtai's family is not at war with Shanbo's; rather, it does not recognise its existence. Traversing class and gender expectations, Yingtai and Shanbo spiral toward the inevitable consequences of a life so much at odds with tradition.

In Computeranimation und virtueller Realitat geht es neben optischer Darstellungsqualitat auch darum, dynamische Anderungen (Bewegung, Verformung, etc.) realistisch wiederzugeben. Das Buch liefert einen Uberblick uber die Methoden von Modellierung und Simulation dynamischer Prozesse in virtuellen, computergenerierten Welten. Das umfasst die Dynamik von Mehrkorpersystemen, kinematischen Strukturen und verformbaren Objekten bis hin zu virtuellen "Lebewesen". Dabei werden neben den technischen Grundkonzepten aktuelle Ansatze aus der Forschung dargestellt.

The Red Azalea provides the Western reader with some valuable insights into the tenacious survival of modern Chinese poetry. Change and upheaval have not stifled the Muse. 'I'm an adult. My optimism is an adult too, she says. 'Hello old friend inseparable as body and shadow...' We can be grateful for the timely appearance of this anthology. - Maxine Kumin