Customer Reviews

Creative 3-D Display and Interaction Interfaces: A Trans-Disciplinary Approach

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I found this book interesting & stimulating, it covers some unexpected ground in a thoughtful way. Plenty of references for follow up material and it's the sort of book you can dip into or study. Lots of good content & invaluable to students of both arts & scientific subjects. Some novel research content, I found the chapter on the Renaissance a great read & the Chimenti controversy is dealt with nicely: shame that images aren't in colour but well worth buying, definitely a transdisciplinary read !!

I'm actually in my firsts steps of my PHd in 3d interfaces. Recently I discovered this book wich is guiding me trough the vast univers in where the 3D interfaces interaction is actually. The trans-disciplinary aproach is very important to open new ways of thinking the challenge of improving the post-winp interfaces.I originaly came from design studys so maths and programing answer only a part of my question, and this book is my actual friend that teachs me like i always needed.

In the repertoire of human skills, both creative three-dimensional design and the visualisation of complex objects must be amongst the most challenging human processes, either to model, to augment or to engage with in any form, by the relevant display and interaction technologies. This book combines both topics.

Given the complementary human/technology character of the book's theme, the authors closely juxtapose a detailed account of human processes and the associated technologies devised to augment the execution of both creative design and visualization.

The fact that the processes of creative design crucially involve human vision, gesture and haptics, accounts for the extensive space given to these phenomena in the book's coverage of interaction interfaces.

The chapters on perception, object depiction and the history of perspective in art are an interesting precursor to the rounded account of today's visual display technologies, including stereoscopic displays, electro-holography and both virtual and mixed reality systems.

The subtitle of the book `A Trans-Disciplinary Approach' is reflected in the broad coverage given to the human-centred and technology-centred disciplines that together make up the table of contents.

The trans-disciplinary ethos is also reflected in the systematic organisation of the individual chapters embodying in each chapter elements of recapitulation, main statements, discussions and end-sections which consist of lists of suggested investigations. Such organization of material and diversity of content will appeal especially to the academic syllabus that practices the trans-disciplinary educational approach.

As one might expect in a book of this kind, the language and treatment will make it equally accessible to science, technology and humanities graduates, whether they are researchers in the area of scientific applications or are designers wishing to gain insights into the technology of their area of creative applications.

The text of each chapter throughout the book is adorned by a sequence of quotations, aphorisms and illustrations from a wide variety of poets, scientists, savants and artists including Albert Einstein, Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare, Coleridge Taylor and Leonardo da Vinci.

Professor Patrick Purcell
Imperial College London

*Above review appears in edited form in BCS magazine "ITNow", July 2006 issue

I found this rather a disappointment for many reasons. First because of the title. I expected to find ideas that were creative in the context today's art in 3D interfaces. What I found was a grind through the history of 3D interfaces, some creative in their day, no doubt, but well known from many sources today.
Then, I have to wonder how up to date the rest of the book (published in 2006) can be if it tells me that "...a modern mouse may use no mechanical components - movement information being obtained from the reflection of optical signals by a rectangular grid of lines marked out on a mouse mat".
The generally dated tone of the book is well illustrated by the inclusion of 19th century engravings and quotations from literature mainly of the same period and of contrived and strained relevance to the subject. These added nothing to the book and were a distraction.
"A History, Physiology and Neurology of 3-D Displays and Interactive Interfaces" might be a more accurate title, and under that title I would not have bought this volume. It will undoubtedly have its place in academic libraries.