Real Computing Made Real

This concise guide to trouble-shooting offers practical advice on detecting and removing the bugs, preserving significant figures, avoiding extraneous solutions, and finding efficient iterative processes for solving nonlinear equations. 1996 edition.

Written by an expert in the game industry, Christer Ericson's new book is a comprehensive guide to the components of efficient real-time collision detection systems. The book provides the tools and know-how needed to implement industrial-strength collision detection for the highly detailed dynamic environments of applications such as 3D games, virtual reality applications, and physical simulators. Of the many topics covered, a key focus is on spatial and object partitioning through a wide variety of grids, trees, and sorting methods. The author also presents a large collection of intersection and distance tests for both simple and complex geometric shapes. Sections on vector and matrix algebra provide the background for advanced topics such as Voronoi regions, Minkowski sums, and linear and quadratic programming. Of utmost importance to programmers but rarely discussed in this much detail in other books are the chapters covering numerical and geometric robustness, both essential topics for collision detection systems. Also unique are the chapters discussing how graphics hardware can assist in collision detection computations and on advanced optimization for modern computer architectures. All in all, this comprehensive book will become the industry standard for years to come.

Numerical software is used to test scientific theories, design airplanes and bridges, operate manufacturing lines, control power plants and refineries, analyze financial derivatives, identify genomes, and provide the understanding necessary to derive and analyze cancer treatments. Because of the high stakes involved, it is essential that results computed using software be accurate, reliable, and robust. Unfortunately, developing accurate and reliable scientific software is notoriously difficult. This book investigates some of the difficulties related to scientific computing and provides insight into how to overcome them and obtain dependable results. The tools to assess existing scientific applications are described, and a variety of techniques that can improve the accuracy and reliability of newly developed applications is discussed. Accuracy and Reliability in Scientific Computing can be considered a handbook for improving the quality of scientific computing. It will help computer scientists address the problems that affect software in general as well as the particular challenges of numerical computation: approximations occurring at all levels, continuous functions replaced by discretized versions, infinite processes replaced by finite ones, and real numbers replaced by finite precision numbers. Divided into three parts, it starts by illustrating some of the difficulties in producing robust and reliable scientific software. Well-known cases of failure are reviewed and the what and why of numerical computations are considered. The second section describes diagnostic tools that can be used to assess the accuracy and reliability of existing scientific applications. In the last section, the authors describe a variety of techniques that can be employed to improve the accuracy and reliability of newly developed scientific applications. The authors of the individual chapters are international experts, many of them members of the IFIP Working Group on Numerical Software.

Designed for undergraduate students in the general science, engineering, and mathematics community, Introduction to the Simulation of Dynamics Using Simulink® shows how to use the powerful tool of Simulink to investigate and form intuitions about the behavior of dynamical systems. Requiring no prior programming experience, it clearly explains how to transition from physical models described by mathematical equations directly to executable Simulink simulations. Teaches students how to model and explore the dynamics of systems Step by step, the author presents the basics of building a simulation in Simulink. He begins with finite difference equations and simple discrete models, such as annual population models, to introduce the concept of state. The text then covers ordinary differential equations, numerical integration algorithms, and time-step simulation. The final chapter offers overviews of some advanced topics, including the simulation of chaotic dynamics and partial differential equations. A one-semester undergraduate course on simulation Written in an informal, accessible style, this guide includes many diagrams and graphics as well as exercises embedded within the text. It also draws on numerous examples from the science, engineering, and technology fields. The book deepens students’ understanding of simulated systems and prepares them for advanced and specialized studies in simulation. Ancillary materials are available at http://nw08.american.edu/~gray

An introduction to computer engineering for babies. Learn basic logic gates with hands on examples of buttons and an output LED.

A wide-ranging investigation of what speculation is, and what is at stake for artistic, curatorial, critical, and institutional practices in relating to their own speculative character. Engaging with the question of speculation in ways that encompass the artistic, the economic, and the philosophical, with excursions into the literary and the scientific, this collection approaches the theme as a powerful logic of contemporary life whose key instantiations are art and finance. Both are premised on the power of contingency, temporality, and experimentation in the creation (and capitalization) of possible worlds. Artistic autonomy, and the self-legislation of the space of art, have often been seen as the freedom to speculate wildly on material and social possibilities. In this context, the artist is seen as a speculative subject and a paragon of creativity—the diametrical opposite of the bean-counter obsessed with balance sheets and value added. However, once social reality becomes speculative and opaque in its own right—risky, algorithmic, and overhauled by networked markets—what becomes of the distinction between not just art and finance but art and life? This anthology surveys material and social inventiveness from the ground up, speculating with technologies, gender, constructs of the family, and systems of logistics and coordination. An ecology of speculation is traced—one that is as broken, specific, and enthralling as the world. Artists Surveyed include Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Ludwiński, Cameron Rowland, Salvage Art Institute, Andy Warhol, Mi You, PiraMMMida, Sam Lewitt Writers Include Lisa Adkins, Ramon Amaro, Brenna Bhandar, Octavia Butler, Cédric Durand, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Sophie Lewis, Dougal Dixon, Stanisław Lem, Isabelle Stengers and Phillip Pignarre, Steven Shaviro, Can Xue, Daniel Spaulding

Many computer scientists, engineers, applied mathematicians, and physicists use geometry theory and geometric computing methods in the design of perception-action systems, intelligent autonomous systems, and man-machine interfaces. This handbook brings together the most recent advances in the application of geometric computing for building such systems, with contributions from leading experts in the important fields of neuroscience, neural networks, image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision, uncertainty in geometric computations, conformal computational geometry, computer graphics and visualization, medical imagery, geometry and robotics, and reaching and motion planning. For the first time, the various methods are presented in a comprehensive, unified manner. This handbook is highly recommended for postgraduate students and researchers working on applications such as automated learning; geometric and fuzzy reasoning; human-like artificial vision; tele-operation; space maneuvering; haptics; rescue robots; man-machine interfaces; tele-immersion; computer- and robotics-aided neurosurgery or orthopedics; the assembly and design of humanoids; and systems for metalevel reasoning.