Fifteen contributions to the April 1989 invitational Workshop on the Mechanics, Control, and Animation of Articulated Figures are collected in this book. The workshop was organized by the editors and conducted at the MIT Media Lab. Approximately 20 researchers in graphics, psychology, physiology, robotics, and mechanical engineering attended. An objective of the meeting was to provide a multidisciplinary exchange of ideas on the challenging task of “making them,” that is, the three-dimensional images of human figures (which we already know how to represent pretty well), “move” in realistic ways.

As stated in the preface, the editors selected the papers “specifically to emphasize the global as well as the particular problems of the field.” The collection not only explores “natural, physically realistic, and perhaps aesthetically effective” motion of graphically simulated human and animal figures; it also gives “corresponding and contrasting explanations for ‘real’ organisms as well as robots.”

The preface contains a good overview of the organization and contents of this four-part book. Part 1, entitled “Interacting and Articulated Figures,” emphasizes computer graphics. It provides “complementary perspectives on the requirements, design, and implementation of computer systems for simulating and displaying human figures.” It contains three chapters--“Task-level Graphical Simulation: Abstraction, Representation, and Control,” by D. Zeltzer; “Composition of Realistic Animation Sequences for Multiple Human Figures,” by T. Calvert; and “Animation from Instructions,” by N. I. Badler, B. L. Webber, J. Kalita, and J. Esakov.

Part 2, on “Artificial and Biological Mechanisms for Motor Control,” consists of six chapters. With emphasis on robotics, physiology, and psychology, this part is divided into three subparts. The first, on artificial motor programs, contains only one chapter, “A Robot that Walks: Emergent Behaviors from a Carefully Evolved Network,” by R. A. Brooks. Four chapters on biological motor programs follow: “Sensory Elements in Pattern-Generating Networks,” by K. G. Pearson; “Motor Programs as Units of Movement Control,” by D. E. Young and R. A. Schmidt; “Dynamics and Task-Specific Coordinations,” by M. T. Turney, E. Saltzman, and R. C. Schmidt; and “Dynamic Pattern Generation and Recognition,” by J. A. S. Kelso and A. S. Pandya. The third subpart, on learning motor programs, also contains only one chapter, “A Computer System for Movement Schemas,” by P. H. Greene and D. Solomon.

Part 3 returns to the problems of computer-based simulation of figure motion by considering three systems in some detail: “Constrained Optimization of Articulated Animal Movement in Computer Animation,” by M. Girard; “Goal-directed Animation of Tabular Articulated Figures or How Snakes Play Golf,” by G. Miller; and “Human Body Deformations Using Joint-Dependent Local Operators and Finite-Element Theory,” by N. Magnenat-Thalmann and D. Thalmann.

The remaining three chapters constitute Part 4, “Computing the Dynamics of Motion.” They cover the mathematics, the numerical techniques, and the special interface and control problems inherent to computing those dynamics. The titles are “Dynamic Experiences,” by J. Wilhelms; “Using Dynamics in Computer Animation: Control and Solution Issues,” by M. Green, and “Teleological Modeling,” by A. H. Barr.

A 16-page appendix contains notes and commentary on the segments of a video (with the same title as the book) that can be purchased from the publishers. Another appendix provides biographical sketches of the editors of and contributors to this collection. Lastly, a four-page subject index is included.

The editors have done their jobs well. While one can always find fault with the balance among papers in a collection like this, on the whole the result is a fine contribution to this special field. As the editors suggest, a variety of different researchers should benefit from this book, including graphics specialists who are not very familiar with figure animation. For those who are already knowledgeable in animation, this book can serve as a useful reference to the multidisciplinary perspectives it provides. Also, interested researchers in other areas, including the life sciences, can gain an awareness of “the growing potential--and pitfalls--of graphically sophisticated, computational models of human, animal, and robot agents.” This volume should become part of the library of any person seriously interested in figure animation.