Computer vision and applications. A guide for students and practitioners. (English) Zbl 0976.68004
Orlando, FL: Academic Press. xxi, 679 p. (2000).
This guide follows the three volumes of Handbook of Computer Vision and Applications by the same two editors plus P. Geißler. Its purpose is to make available much of the same information in a condensed and abbreviated form. It is obviously geared at students who can afford the price of this volume.
The book is divided into three parts, reflecting the three volumes of the Handbook: Sensors and imaging (including 6 contributions), Signal processing and pattern recognition (10 contributions), and Application gallery (27 short examples of actual works). Each of the contributions is self-contained. They can be studied by any student with a working background in typical university mathematics, but they treat their topics on an advanced level. As must be expected by the complexity of the subject matter, the treatment is mathematical with a heavy influence from physics. Each chapter provides the necessary theory of its particular topic, and visually displays a good deal of practical data. Chapters contain very detailed lists of content, thus easing the use of the book. The style is not exactly that of a textbook but an advanced student should be able to follow, and find any information on computer vision he may be in need of.
The first three chapters, and later parts as well, demonstrate the gradually increasing overlap of computer vision and graphics.
The applications in the gallery are confined to two pages each. One page is text (problem statement, approach or algorithms, and results), the second one displays pictures from the project.
The index, necessary for an intensive use of such a volume, could be a bit more elaborate. A CD-ROM is accompanying the book. It carries the whole text with links into other parts. The CD also contains very short animation clips, and a lot of accompanying material that is cross-referenced. I was not in a position to extensively test-use the CD. It appears to be more like a repository of much of the material, than a self-contained hypermedia of even more detailed links and media material.
Most of the contributions are authored by colleagues of one of the editors in Heidelberg, Germany, with some more papers coming from other places in Germany, from Switzerland, Canada, the US and the UK. The editors aim at bridging the gap between theory and applications. It seems they are on the right track.
The book is divided into three parts, reflecting the three volumes of the Handbook: Sensors and imaging (including 6 contributions), Signal processing and pattern recognition (10 contributions), and Application gallery (27 short examples of actual works). Each of the contributions is self-contained. They can be studied by any student with a working background in typical university mathematics, but they treat their topics on an advanced level. As must be expected by the complexity of the subject matter, the treatment is mathematical with a heavy influence from physics. Each chapter provides the necessary theory of its particular topic, and visually displays a good deal of practical data. Chapters contain very detailed lists of content, thus easing the use of the book. The style is not exactly that of a textbook but an advanced student should be able to follow, and find any information on computer vision he may be in need of.
The first three chapters, and later parts as well, demonstrate the gradually increasing overlap of computer vision and graphics.
The applications in the gallery are confined to two pages each. One page is text (problem statement, approach or algorithms, and results), the second one displays pictures from the project.
The index, necessary for an intensive use of such a volume, could be a bit more elaborate. A CD-ROM is accompanying the book. It carries the whole text with links into other parts. The CD also contains very short animation clips, and a lot of accompanying material that is cross-referenced. I was not in a position to extensively test-use the CD. It appears to be more like a repository of much of the material, than a self-contained hypermedia of even more detailed links and media material.
Most of the contributions are authored by colleagues of one of the editors in Heidelberg, Germany, with some more papers coming from other places in Germany, from Switzerland, Canada, the US and the UK. The editors aim at bridging the gap between theory and applications. It seems they are on the right track.
Reviewer: F.Nake (Bremen)
MSC:
| 68-06 | Proceedings, conferences, collections, etc. pertaining to computer science |
| 00B15 | Collections of articles of miscellaneous specific interest |
