Description 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.
Audience
Programmers and developers in computer graphics and the game industry, scientists and engineers working in aerospace and scientific visualization,
students of game development and computer graphics, and those interested in quaternions but who have limited math background.
Contents
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
FOREWORD by Steve Cunningham
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PART I ELEMENTS
OF QUATERNIONS
01 THE DISCOVERY OF QUATERNIONS
1.1 Hamilton's Walk
1.2 Then Came Octonions
1.3
The Quaternion Revival
02 FOLKLORE OF ROTATIONS
2.1 The Belt Trick
2.2 The Rolling Ball
2.3
The Apollo 10 Gimbal-lock Incident
2.4 3D Game Developer's Nightmare
2.5 The Urban Legend of the Upside-down F16
2.6
Quaternions to the Rescue
03 BASIC NOTATION
3.1 Vectors
3.2 Length of a Vector
3.3 3D Dot Product
3.4
3D Cross Product
3.5 Unit Vectors
3.6 Spheres
3.7 Matrices
3.8 Complex Numbers
04 WHAT
ARE QUATERNIONS?
05 ROAD MAP TO QUATERNION VISUALIZATION
5.1 The Complex Number Connection
5.2 The Cornerstones
of Quaternion Visualization
06 FUNDAMENTALS OF ROTATIONS
6.1 2D Rotations
6.1.1 Relation to Complex Numbers
6.1.2
The Half-angle Form
6.1.3 Complex Exponential Version
6.2 Quaternions and 3D Rotations
6.2.1 Construction
6.2.2
Quaternions and Half Angles
6.2.3 Double Values
6.3 Recovering Θ and n
6.4 Euler
Angles and Quaternions
6.5 Optional Remarks
6.5.1 Connections to Group Theory
6.5.2 "Pure"
Quaternion Derivation
6.5.3 Quaternion Exponential Version
6.6 Conclusion
07 VISUALIZING
ALGEBRAIC STRUCTURE
7.1 Algebra of Complex Numbers
7.1.1 Complex Numbers
7.1.2 Abstract View of Complex Multiplication
7.1.3
Restriction to Unit-length Case
7.2 Quaternion Algebra
7.2.1 The Multiplication Rule
7.2.2 Scalar Product
7.2.3
Modulus of the Quaternion Product
7.2.4 Preservation of the Unit Quaternions
08 VISUALIZING SPHERES
8.1
2D: Visualizing an Edge-on Circle
8.1.1 Trigonometric Function Method
8.1.2 Complex Variable Method
8.1.3 Square
Root Method
8.2 The Square Root Method
8.3 3D: Visualizing a Balloon
8.3.1 Trigonometric Function Method
8.3.2
Square Root Method
8.4 4D: Visualizing Quaternion Geometry on S3
8.4.1 Seeing the
Parameters of a Single Quaternion
8.4.2 Hemispheres in S3
09 VISUALIZING
LOGARITHMS AND EXPONENTIALS
9.1 Complex Numbers
9.2 Quaternions
10 VISUALIZING INTERPOLATION METHODS
10.1
Basics of Interpolation
10.1.1 Interpolation Issues
10.1.2 Gram-Schmidt Derivation of the SLERP
10.1.3
Alternative Derivation
10.2 Quaternion Interpolation
10.3 Equivalent 3×3 Matrix Method
11
LOOKING AT ELEMENTARY QUATERNION FRAMES
11.1 A Single Quaternion Frame
11.2 Several Isolated Frames
11.3 A Rotating
Frame Sequence
11.4 Synopsis
12 QUATERNIONS AND THE BELT TRICK: CONNECTING TO THE IDENTITY
12.1 Very
Interesting, but Why?
12.1.1 The Intuitive Answer
12.1.2 The Technical Answer
12.2 The Details
12.3
Frame-sequence Visualization Methods
12.3.1 One Rotation
12.3.2 Two Rotations
12.3.3 Synopsis
13
QUATERNIONS AND THE ROLLING BALL: EXPLOITING ORDER DEPENDENCE
13.1 Order Dependence
13.2 The Rolling Ball Controller
13.3
Rolling Ball Quaternions
13.4 Commutators
13.5 Three Degrees of Freedom From Two
14 QUATERNIONS
AND GIMBAL LOCK: LIMITING THE AVAILABLE SPACE
14.1 Guidance System Suspension
14.2 Mathematical Interpolation Singularities
14.3
Quaternion Viewpoint
PART II ADVANCED QUATERNION TOPICS
15 ALTERNATIVE WAYS OF WRITING
QUATERNIONS
15.1 Hamilton's Generalization of Complex Numbers
15.2 Pauli Matrices
15.3 Other Matrix Forms
16
EFFICIENCY AND COMPLEXITY ISSUES
16.1 Extracting a Quaternion
16.1.1 Positive Trace R
16.1.2 Nonpositive
Trace R
16.2 Efficiency of Vector Operations
17 ADVANCED SPHERE VISUALIZATION
17.1
Projective Method
17.1.1 The Circle S1
17.1.2 General SN Polar
Projection
17.2 Distance-preserving Flattening Methods
17.2.1 Unroll-and-Flatten S1
17.2.2 S2 Flattened Equal-area Method
17.2.3 S3 Flattened Equal-volume Method
18
MORE ON LOGARITHMS AND EXPONENTIALS
18.1 2D Rotations
18.2 3D Rotations
18.3 Using Logarithms for Quaternion Calculus
18.4
Quaternion Interpolations Versus Log
19 TWO-DIMENSIONAL CURVES
19.1 Orientation Frames for 2D Space Curves
19.1.1
2D Rotation Matrices
19.1.2 The Frame Matrix in 2D
19.1.3 Frame Evolution in 2D
19.2 What Is a Map?
19.3
Tangent and Normal Maps
19.4 Square Root Form
19.4.1 Frame Evolution in (a, b)
19.4.2 Simplifying the
Frame Equations
20 THREE-DIMENSIONAL CURVES
20.1 Introduction to 3D Space Curves
20.2 General
Curve Framings in 3D
20.3 Tubing
20.4 Classical Frames
20.4.1 Frenet-Serret Frame
20.4.2 Parallel Transport
Frame
20.4.3 Geodesic Reference Frame
20.4.4 General Frames
20.5 Mapping the Curvature and Torsion
20.6
Theory of Quaternion Frames
20.6.1 Generic Quaternion Frame Equations
20.6.2 Quaternion Frenet Frames
20.6.3 Quaternion
Parallel Transport Frames
20.7 Assigning Smooth Quaternion Frames
20.7.1 Assigning Quaternions to Frenet Frames
20.7.2
Assigning Quaternions to Parallel Transport Frames
20.8 Examples: Torus Knot and Helix Quaternion Frames
Books and book related electronic products are priced in US dollars (USD), euro (EUR), and Great Britain Pounds (GBP). USD prices apply to the Americas and Asia Pacific. EUR prices apply in Europe and the Middle East. GBP prices apply to the UK and all other countries.