Andrew Glassner’s Other Notebook

In 1996 I started writing a regular column for IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications. This book is the second collection of my columns, bringing together three year’s worth of articles. They’ve all been updated and revised for this gathering, handsomely published by AK Peters.

As a bonus, the book also includes an updated version of one of my favorite technical papers, “A Shape Synthesizer,” that shows how to adapt the principles of sound synthesis to creating shapes.

The idea that graphics is fun is reflected in the book’s subtitle, Further Recreations Computer Graphics. Here we take on a whole new variety of fun and interesting topics that somehow relate to computer graphics. We look at things like the cool effects we can get by using unusual shutters on our cameras, how to create physically accurate lightning and thunder, the geometry and physics of soap bubbles, and even the basics of quantum computing and quantum encryption.

The cover is a notebook-style collage of some illustrations from different chapters, evoking the idea of a notebook.

Here’s the table of contents:

• Preface
• 1 An Open and Shut Case
• 2 O Say, Can You See?
• 3 Celtic Knotwork
• 4 The Digital Ceraunoscope: Synthetic Thunder and Lightning
• 5 Texturing With Symmetry
• 6 Soap Bubbles
• 7 Fill ‘Er Up!
• 8 A Change of Scene
• 9 Tricks of the Trade
• 10 Quantum Computing
• 11 A Shape Synthesizer
• Index

You can find the book at all of your favorite online booksellers, such as Amazon.