Cylinders, spheres and cubes are a small handful of shapes that can be defined by a single word. However, most shapes cannot be found in a dictionary. They belong to an alternative plastic world defined by trigonometry: a mathematical world where all shapes can be described under one systematic language and where any shape can transform into another. This visually striking guidebook clearly and systematically lays out the basic foundation for using these mathematical transformations as design tools. It is intended for architects, designers, and anyone with the curiosity to understand the link between shapes and the equations behind them.

Two thousand years ago, Ovid asked his readers to imagine metamorphoses in which men and women became flowers and beasts. Today, before our cinema-savvy eyes, people melt and re-form as altogether new creatures: they "morph." This volume explores what digital morphing means -- both as a cultural practice specific to our times and as a link to a much broader history of images of human transformation. Meta-Morphing ranges over topics that include turn-of-the-century "quick-change" artists, Mesoamerican shamanic transformation, and cosmetic surgery; recent works such as Terminator 2, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Heavenly Creatures, and Forrest Gump; and the transformations imagined by Kafka, Proust, and Burroughs. The contributors look not only at the technical wizardry behind digital morphing, but also at the history and cultural concerns it expresses.

Warping and morphing permeate the realm of computer graphics. This classic book defines the field: it presents a unifying view of warping and morphing, combining a conceptual framework with a consolidated view of the state of the art. Coverage includes deformations of various graphical objects such as plane curves, images, surfaces, and volumes. The authors developed a full-featured warping and morphing system, Morphos, where several types of graphical objects and computation techniques coexist. Morphos is included on the companion CD-ROM. This book and CD-ROM offer the most comprehensive professional reference available on warping and morphing techniques. Together they are the complete source for both researchers whose main interests are in the mathematical and conceptual foundations and computer graphics professionals who need to incorporate more warping and morphing techniques into their applications. Features: *The latest warping and morphing techniques and examples *An entire chapter on image-based rendering techniques and how they relate to warping and morphing *Companion CD-ROM containing source code and documentation for the Morphos system *Links to www.visgraf.impa.br/morph/, which provides an online bibliography and pointers to other regularly updated morphing websites

In the past few years morphing, a new computer graphics technique, has been gaining popularity. This book begins by outlining the background of morphing. It then gives a detailed description of techniques being used for morphing, followed by a chapter outlining how to implement each of the techniques. In the final section of the book, readers will find pointers on where to find more information. (Desktop Publishing)

Tom Cho's collection of fictions and fantasies is all about morphing and transformation. Through the shape-shifting, we follow the narrator on his surreal adventures, which include dirty dancing with Johnny Castle, a rambunctious encounter with TV's Dr Phil, a job as Whitney Houston's bodyguard and another as a Muppet, a period in service with the von Trapp family in The Sound of Music, a totally destructive outing as Godzilla, and that high octane performance as a Gulliver-sized cock rock singer, complete with cohort of tiny adoring girls. As these fantasies of identity, sexuality and power ...

Morphing Wings Technologies: Large Commercial Aircraft and Civil Helicopters offers a fresh look at current research on morphing aircraft, including industry design, real manufactured prototypes and certification. This is an invaluable reference for students in the aeronautics and aerospace fields who need an introduction to the morphing discipline, as well as senior professionals seeking exposure to morphing potentialities. Practical applications of morphing devices are presented—from the challenge of conceptual design incorporating both structural and aerodynamic studies, to the most promising and potentially flyable solutions aimed at improving the performance of commercial aircraft and UAVs. Morphing aircraft are multi-role aircraft that change their external shape substantially to adapt to a changing mission environment during flight. The book consists of eight sections as well as an appendix which contains both updates on main systems evolution (skin, structure, actuator, sensor, and control systems) and a survey on the most significant achievements of integrated systems for large commercial aircraft. - Provides current worldwide status of morphing technologies, the industrial development expectations, and what is already available in terms of flying systems - Offers new perspectives on wing structure design and a new approach to general structural design - Discusses hot topics such as multifunctional materials and auxetic materials - Presents practical applications of morphing devices

What is intelligence? The concept crosses and blurs the boundaries between natural and artificial, bridging the human brain and the cybernetic world of AI. In this book, the acclaimed philosopher Catherine Malabou ventures a new approach that emphasizes the intertwined, networked relationships among the biological, the technological, and the symbolic. Malabou traces the modern metamorphoses of intelligence, seeking to understand how neurobiological and neurotechnological advances have transformed our view. She considers three crucial developments: the notion of intelligence as an empirical, genetically based quality measurable by standardized tests; the shift to the epigenetic paradigm, with its emphasis on neural plasticity; and the dawn of artificial intelligence, with its potential to simulate, replicate, and ultimately surpass the workings of the brain. Malabou concludes that a dialogue between human and cybernetic intelligence offers the best if not the only means to build a democratic future. A strikingly original exploration of our changing notions of intelligence and the human and their far-reaching philosophical and political implications, Morphing Intelligence is an essential analysis of the porous border between symbolic and biological life at a time when once-clear distinctions between mind and machine have become uncertain.