Foundations of Multidimensional and Metric Data Structures (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics) (Hardcover)

by Hanan Samet (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Honorable Mention Award in the 2006 best book in Computer and Information Science competition from the Professional and Scholarly Publishers(PSP) Group of the American Publishers Association (AAP)

"Hanan Samet is the dean of "spatial indexing"... This book is encyclopedic... this book will be invaluable for those of us who struggle with spatial data, scientific datasets, graphics, vision problems involving volumetric queries, or with higher dimensional datasets common in data mining."
- From the foreword by Jim Gray, Microsoft Research

"Samet's book on multidimensional and metric data structures is the most complete and thorough presentation on this topic. It has broad coverage of material from computational geometry, databases, graphics, GIS, and similarity retrieval literature. Written by the leading authority on hierarchical spatial representations, this book is a "must have" for all instructors, researchers, and developers working and teaching in these areas."
- Dinesh Manocha, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"To summarize, this book is excellent! It's a very comprehensive survey of spatial and multidimensional data structures and algorithms, which is badly needed. The breadth and depth of coverage is astounding and I would consider several parts of it required reading for real time graphics and game developers."
- Bretton Wade, University of Washington and Microsoft Corp.

"It's a truly encyclopedic book on data structures for accelerating all sorts of 3D queries."
- Hector Yee, Hectorgon - A Graphics Programming Blog, October 18, 2006

Book Description
THE thorough and authoritative treatment on multidimensional data structures.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1024 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann (August 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0123694469
• ISBN-13: 978-0123694461
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #164,644 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Encyclopedia of Spatial , Multidimensional, and Metric Data Structures and Algorithms, September 1, 2006

By	David K. Scott - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A stunning 1000 page encyclopedia of spatial, multidimensional, and metric data structures and algorithms presented in the Knuth tradition. The general coverage is broader than an older, now out of print and expensive: "Design and Analysis of Spatial Data Structures". In a surprise, the new book is not only the size of a telephone directory, but it has double the number of useful pages. 4 extensive chapters cover data structures and algorithms for: points, objects and images, intervals and small rectangles, and the same data types in higher +dimensions. Within each chapter, the algorithms and clearly presented and are accompanied by an extensive use of figures. The algorithms which run from the expected to the exotic are summarized by the table of contents at the publisher's web site. Unexpected algorithms are also covered including: nearest neighbor finding which is useful for clustering applications, image pyramids, and object pyramids or hierarchies such as R-trees.


The book has a textbook flavor with exercises at the end of each section where specifics are left for the student; however, solutions and pseudo-code for many of the exercises are in a 300+ page appendix maintaining the book as a useful reference. This book is comprehensive, inexpensive, and in my mind - a must have.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A true classic, seminal and authoritative, January 17, 2007

By	Richard Snodgrass (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hanan Samet, the world-reknown authority on multi-dimensional data, has written a comprehensive and stunningly beautiful book. The illustrations that appear in the margins of almost every page serve to wonderfully augment the text and convey the essence of the topic under discussion. If you enjoy the clarity and broad coverage of Knuth's classics, or the elegance and wonder of Tufte's monographs, you will love this book.

Samet has distilled a lifetime of work understanding the algorithms of others and inventing major new algorithms and data structures into this very readable survey. The annotated bibliography and multiple indexes are amazing accomplishments in their own right. The book is very reasonably priced, making it accessible. This delightful book deserves to be on the bookshelf of every computer science scholar and programmer. X. Hao is right: this is truly a masterpiece.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book on spatial, multidimensional, and metric data structures, November 21, 2006

By	X. Hao (Columbia University) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The most complete book on the subject to date. In addition, to the huge amount of information covered, it also contains a thorough bibliography with over 2000 entries. The author uses an algorithmic approach with plenty of pseudo-code without resorting to complicated mathematical formulae. Clear explanations are given with more than 450 figures illustrating the ideas. The result is a wonderful place to explore spatial, multidimensional, and metric data structures on one's own or as part of a class. It has more than 1200 exercises that test the readers' understanding of the covered material, while many also develop the material in the text further. Solutions are provided to most of the exercises and also contain detailed pseudo code for many of the representations. The book is easily accessible to a wide range of readers who need not be programmers or computer scientists. Sample pages for the opening discussion in each of the book's four chapters are available at the publisher's web site.

This book goes far beyond Hanan Samet's previous books containing completely new material such as a thorough discussion of image- and object-based representations, as well as an entire chapter on high-dimensional and metric data representations which together comprise almost two-thirds of the book. In addition, the new book expands considerably the discussion of point data in his out of print book titled "The Design and Analysis of Spatial Data Structures," which though still contains some material that is not in the new book. The new book has no overlap with his other out of print book titled "Applications of Spatial Data Structures: Computer Graphics, Image Processing and GIS".

To summarize, this is another wonderful book from the most respected authority in the field. From novice to expert, everyone can learn something from this true masterpiece.