Heterogeneous object modeling is a new and quickly developing research area. This book systematically covers the most relevant themes and problems of this new and challenging subject area.

Modern engineering often deals with customized design that requires easy, low-cost and rapid fabrication. Rapid prototyping (RP) is a popular technology that enables quick and easy fabrication of customized forms/objects directly from computer aided design (CAD) model. The needs for quick product development, decreased time to market, and highly customized and low quantity parts are driving the demand for RP technology. Today, RP technology also known as solid freeform fabrication (SFF) or desktop manufacturing (DM) or layer manufacturing (LM) is regarded as an efficient tool to bring the product concept into the product realization rapidly. Though all the RP technologies are additive they are still different from each other in the way of building layers and/or nature of building materials. This book delivers up-to-date information about RP technology focusing on the overview of the principles, functional requirements, design constraints etc. of specific technology.

Arthur Asa Berger, author of an array of texts in communication, popular culture, and social theory, is back with the second edition of his popular, user-friendly guide for students who want to understand the social meanings of objects. In this broadly interdisciplinary text, Berger takes the reader through half a dozen theoretical models that are commonly used to analyze objects. He then describes and analyzes eleven objects, many of them new to this edition—including smartphones, Facebook, hair dye, and the American flag—showing how they demonstrate concepts like globalization, identity, and nationalism. The book includes a series of exercises that allow students to analyse objects in their own environment. Brief and inexpensive, this introductory guide will be used in courses ranging from anthropology to art history, pop culture to psychology.

Forming connections between human performance and design, this new edition of Engineering Psychology and Human Performance examines human–machine interaction. The book is organized directly from a psychological perspective of human information processing, and chapters correspond to the flow of information as it is processed by a human being—from the senses, through the brain, to action—rather than from the perspective of system components or engineering design concepts. Upon completing this book, readers will be able to identify how human ability contributes to the design of technology; understand the connections within human information processing and human performance; challenge the way they think about technology’s influence on human performance; and show how theoretical advances have been, or might be, applied to improving human–machine interactions. This new edition includes the following key features: A new chapter on research methods Sections on interruption management and distracted driving as cogent examples of applications of engineering psychology theory to societal problems A greatly increased number of references to pandemics, technostress, and misinformation New applications Amplified emphasis on readability and commonsense examples Updated and new references throughout the text This book is ideal for psychology and engineering students, as well as practitioners in engineering psychology, human performance, and human factors. The text is also supplemented by online resources for students and instructors.