PCs for AP

The focus of this column will be the general subject of "visualization" and how computers and computer graphics are revolutionizing this fascinating area. Over the past few years, including the occasion of a course I gave at Kansas University on developing computer-graphics movies for teaching, I have collected a number of books related in one way or another to visualization and graphics. During that collection process I was surprised to find myself perusing the art and medical departments of book stores as I discovered that my evolving interest in visualization naturally led to investigating how artists, who specialize in presenting visual images, deal with that problem from a mental viewpoint. This led to another unexpected topic, that of psychology, and in particular how we interpret what we see. I thought that it might be useful to present summaries of several otf he more interestingt o me, and I hope to you also. You should be warned that this will be a rather eclectic book collection asa ll are not directly relatetdo computer graphics,b ut do relate to visualization in one form or another