Visualizing Quaternions (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Interactive 3D Technology)

Hanson, Andrew J.

Morgan Kaufmann

Introduced 160 years ago as an attempt to generalize complex numbers to higher dimensions, quaternions are now recognized as one of the most important concepts in modern computer graphics. They offer a powerful way to represent rotations and compared to rotation matrices they use less memory, compose faster, and are naturally suited for efficient interpolation of rotations. Despite this, many practitioners have avoided quaternions because of the mathematics used to understand them, hoping that some day a more intuitive description will be available. The wait is over. Andrew Hanson's new book is a fresh perspective on quaternions. The first part of the book focuses on visualizing quaternions to provide the intuition necessary to use them, and includes many illustrative examples to motivate why they are important―a beautiful introduction to those wanting to explore quaternions unencumbered by their mathematical aspects. The second part covers the all-important advanced applications, including quaternion curves, surfaces, and volumes. Finally, for those wanting the full story of the mathematics behind quaternions, there is a gentle introduction to their four-dimensional nature and to Clifford Algebras, the all-encompassing framework for vectors and quaternions.

Arts & Photography

Graphic Design

Visualizing More Quaternions is a sequel to Dr. Andrew J. Hanson's first book, Visualizing Quaternions, which appeared in 2006. This new volume develops and extends concepts that have attracted the author's attention in the intervening 18 years, providing new insights into existing scholarship, and detailing results from Dr. Hanson's own published and unpublished investigations relating to quaternion applications. Among the topics covered are the introduction of new approaches to depicting quaternions and their properties, applications of quaternion methods to cloud matching, including both orthographic and perspective projection problems, and orientation feature analysis for proteomics and bioinformatics. The quaternion adjugate variables are introduced to embody the nontrivial quaternion topology on the three-sphere and incorporate it into machine learning tasks. Other subjects include quaternion applications to a wide variety of problems in physics, including quantum computing, complexified quaternions in special relativity, a detailed study of the Kleinian "ADE" discrete groups of the ordinary two-sphere, and the incorporation of quaternion geometry into the isometric embedding of the Eguchi-Hanson gravitational instanton that corresponds to the k=1 Kleinian cyclic group. Visualizing More Quaternions endeavors to explore novel ways of thinking about challenging problems that are relevant to a broad audience involved in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.

Visualizing More Quaternions

Science & Math

Mathematics

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Books by Hanson, Andrew J.