Visualizing Quaternions (Hardcover)

Andrew J. Hanson

ISBN 10: 0120884003 / ISBN 13: 9780120884001

Published by Elsevier Science & Technology, San Francisco, 2006

About this Item

Hardcover. Introduced 160 years ago as an attempt to generalize complex numbers to higher dimensions, quaternions are now recognized as one of the most important concepts in modern computer graphics. They offer a powerful way to represent rotations and compared to rotation matrices they use less memory, compose faster, and are naturally suited for efficient interpolation of rotations. Despite this, many practitioners have avoided quaternions because of the mathematics used to understand them, hoping that some day a more intuitive description will be available. The wait is over. Andrew Hanson's new book is a fresh perspective on quaternions. The first part of the book focuses on visualizing quaternions to provide the intuition necessary to use them, and includes many illustrative examples to motivate why they are important-a beautiful introduction to those wanting to explore quaternions unencumbered by their mathematical aspects. The second part covers the all-important advanced applications, including quaternion curves, surfaces, and volumes.Finally, for those wanting the full story of the mathematics behind quaternions, there is a gentle introduction to their four-dimensional nature and to Clifford Algebras, the all-encompassing framework for vectors and quaternions.* Richly illustrated introduction for the developer, scientist, engineer, or student in computer graphics, visualization, or entertainment computing. * Covers both non-mathematical and mathematical approaches to quaternions. * Companion website with an assortment of quaternion utilities and sample code, data sets for the book's illustrations, and Mathematica notebooks with essential algebraic utilities. Focuses on visualizing quaternions to provide the intuition necessary to use them. This work covers the advanced applications, including quaternion curves, surfaces, and volumes. It also includes an introduction to their four-dimensional nature and to Clifford Algebras, the all-encompassing framework for vectors and quaternions. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780120884001

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Visualizing Quaternions (Hardcover)
• Publisher: Elsevier Science & Technology, San Francisco
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0120884003
• ISBN 13: 9780120884001
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Introduced 160 years ago as an attempt to generalize complex numbers to higher dimensions, quaternions are now recognized as one of the most important concepts in modern computer graphics. They offer a powerful way to represent rotations and compared to rotation matrices they use less memory, compose faster, and are naturally suited for efficient interpolation of rotations. Despite this, many practitioners have avoided quaternions because of the mathematics used to understand them, hoping that some day a more intuitive description will be available.The wait is over. Andrew Hanson's new book is a fresh perspective on quaternions. The first part of the book focuses on visualizing quaternions to provide the intuition necessary to use them, and includes many illustrative examples to motivate why they are important―a beautiful introduction to those wanting to explore quaternions unencumbered by their mathematical aspects. The second part covers the all-important advanced applications, including quaternion curves, surfaces, and volumes. Finally, for those wanting the full story of the mathematics behind quaternions, there is a gentle introduction to their four-dimensional nature and to Clifford Algebras, the all-encompassing framework for vectors and quaternions.

• Richly illustrated introduction for the developer, scientist, engineer, or student in computer graphics, visualization, or entertainment computing.
• Covers both non-mathematical and mathematical approaches to quaternions.

About the Author

Andrew J. Hanson Ph.D. is an Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at Indiana University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard University in 1966 and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from MIT under Kerson Huang in 1971. His interests range from general relativity to computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and bioinformatics; he is particularly concerned with applications of quaternions and with exploitation of higher-dimensional graphics for the visualization of complex scientific contexts such as Calabi-Yau spaces. He is the co-discoverer of the Eguchi-Hanson “gravitational instanton” Einstein metric (1978), author of Visualizing Quaternions (Elsevier, 2006), and designer of the iPhone Apps “4Dice” and “4DRoom” (2012) for interacting with four-dimensional virtual reality.