Customer Reviews

Wavelets for Computer Graphics: Theory and Applications (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I noticed that Tony DeRose, one of the authors of this book,
was a project lead in Pixar's wonderful film "Monsters".
Computer graphics, especially at the cutting edge practiced
by Pixar is deeply mathematical. This is certainly reflected
in this book.

This book covers a number of areas that are not covered outside
of journal articles. For example, there are chapters on
interpolating wavelets (e.g., wavelets built via splines or
polynomials). The coverage of interpolation and splines to
construct wavelet is good, but the authors quickly gloss over
the other critical half of the problem: how to construct a
scaling function for a given interpolating wavelet. I have
read over this material several times and I have not found the
answer. I have come to doubt that the answer is there, at
least in a complete form.

This characterizes much of the book. The authors cover
important material, but if you are not already deeply
familiar wavelet mathematics, it may be difficult or
impossible to implement an algorith from the coverage
provided in this book. Many practical issues are missing.
For example, many wavelets calculated on a finite data set
like an image can have edge effects. There is little
in this book on minimizing edge effects.

If you are already familiar with wavelet algorithms and their
implementation, this book may be a great reference for wavelet
applications in computer graphics. But it is by no means
an introduction for the novice.

This is a fine introduction to wavelets for computer scientists, with many fun applications in computer graphics. Easier than other introductions I've seen, in part because it avoids the frequency domain. I'm using it in a graduate course, but it would be easy to use by yourself or in a special seminar for undergraduates in CS or math.

I'll start out by saying that I am a complete idiot who does not know the first thing about calculus, but I do have 10 years worth of software engineering experience and have no trouble following complicated data processing concepts when they are explained in terms of procedures rather than terse, obfuscated, squiggly equations. The introduction in this book looked promising in that it seemed to be taking a step-by-step "this is how you need to juggle the pixel values around" approach to the concept of wavelet transforms, but as luck would have it, the very next page AFTER the freely available sample is chock full of everything I can't read and didn't want. Of course, my own ignorance is neither the book nor the author's fault, but a better description and/or lengthier excerpt from the publisher could have saved me a lot of trouble ordering and returning this item since it's not something a lot of brick and mortar stores carry on their shelves. The price tag is also more than a little steep for its size, but I suppose the book's target audience is college kids who are used to throwing away hundreds of dollars on whatever their professors tell them to.

I've no doubt that mathematicians will find humor in (and possibly be enraged by) my folly, but maybe this will save a fellow stupid code monkey a little time and money.

This is an easy to read book covering simple wavelets relating to computer graphics. This book also provides a very easy and fun explanation of subdivision.

This book is primarily aimed at the application of wavelets, it contains simple and easy to follow illustrations of key concepts, and is very light on proofs. While I may be slightly biased, in that I have a degree in Computer Engineering, I really can't imagine an explanation of wavelets being any easier to read than this book is.

Overall, the authors did an excellent job creating an introductory book on wavelets relating to computer graphics.

I shall be brief and skip saucy words and go to the main point: Why you should acquire this book? 2 Reasons. 1)Michael Lounsbery, Tony D. DeRose and Joe Warren, "Multiresolution analysis for surfaces of arbitrary topological type" 2)"Multiresolution curves", Adam Finkelstein and David H. Salesin.

The authors offer their knowledge in an early stage and this honour them in the largest extent! This book provides an expleantion for these two papers and their branches(papers originating from these theories).