Glassner has had a personal column in IEEE Computer Graphics & Applications since 1996. In this latest revised collection of his contributions, he provides 13 chapters of interesting and varied topics. Several specific topics, outlined below, are worthy of note.

“Interactive pop-up card design” discusses the definition of a set of surface shapes that can be folded flat inside a book, and yet produce an interesting three-dimensional shape when the book is opened. “Picking up the pieces” is all about recovering pictures that have been shredded into vertical strips and jumbled, by matching the pixels on the edge of each strip. This discussion is beautifully illustrated. “Duck!” describes how to simulate the amazing patterns produced by the paddling of ducks swimming in formation. “Getting the picture” demonstrates methods of filtering precise photographs to produce artistic abstractions.

“Digital weaving” describes the generation of complex and beautiful patterns from a loom simulator. “DMorph” explains how to transform any solid convex body into another. (“Convex” means the solid can’t have hollows.) “Crop art” describes how to construct two-dimensional shapes similar to those produced mysteriously, and studied by cerealogists, in fields of wheat or similar stalked plants. The author includes an amusing example of how to produce a crop circle effect in a parking lot when you can’t find a cornfield to play with.

Each chapter sets its scene, often with intriguing historical detail, and provides much of the mathematics underlying each subject, all fundamental to computer graphics, and introduced in a most attractive manner. Another objective of the author is to show how finding the answer to a simple question can lead to the creation of a range of important techniques in computer graphics. There are excellent guides to further reading in each subject.

Pictures are fundamental in this field, and all topics are illustrated superbly, in full color. Though the cost of this book is high, I would recommend the book strongly to anyone with a good background in mathematics.