Springer, 2009, -338 p.
This book presents the mathematics, computational methods and data structures, as well as the algorithms needed to render implicit curves and surfaces. Implicit objects have gained an increasing importance in geometric modeling, visualisation, animation, and computer graphics due to their nice geometric properties which give them some advantages over traditional modeling methods. For example, the point membership classification is trivial using implicit representations of geometric objects - a very useful property for detecting collisions in virtual environments and computer game scenarios. The ease with which implicit techniques can be used to describe smooth, intricate, and articulatable shapes through blending and constructive solid geometry show us how powerful they are and why they are finding use in a growing number of graphics applications.
The book is mainly directed towards graduate students, researchers and developers in computer graphics, geometric modeling, virtual reality and computer games. Nevertheless, it can be useful as a core textbook for a graduate-level course on implicit geometric modeling or even for general computer graphics courses with a focus on modeling, visualisation and animation. Finally, and because of the scarce number of textbooks focusing on implicit geometric modeling, this book may also work as an important reference for those interested in modeling and rendering complex geometric objects.
Part I Mathematics and Data StructuresMathematical Fundamentals
Spatial Data Structures
Part II Sampling MethodsRoot Isolation Methods
Interval Arithmetic
Root-Finding Methods
Part III Reconstruction and PolygonisationContinuation Methods
Spatial Partitioning Methods
Implicit Surface Fitting
Part IV Designing Complex Implicit Surface ModelsSkeletal Implicit Modeling Techniques
Natural Phenomenae-I: Static Modeling
Natural Phenomenae-II: Animation