Geometric Computing With Clifford Algebras

Clifford algebra, then called geometric algebra, was introduced more than a cenetury ago by William K. Clifford, building on work by Grassmann and Hamilton. Clifford or geometric algebra shows strong unifying aspects and turned out in the 1960s to be a most adequate formalism for describing different geometry-related algebraic systems as specializations of one "mother algebra" in various subfields of physics and engineering. Recent work outlines that Clifford algebra provides a universal and powerfull algebraic framework for an elegant and coherent representation of various problems occuring in computer science, signal processing, neural computing, image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision, and robotics. This monograph-like anthology introduces the concepts and framework of Clifford algebra and provides computer scientists, engineers, physicists, and mathematicians with a rich source of examples of how to work with this formalism.

This monograph-like anthology introduces the concepts and framework of Clifford algebra. It provides a rich source of examples of how to work with this formalism. Clifford or geometric algebra shows strong unifying aspects and turned out in the 1960s to be a most adequate formalism for describing different geometry-related algebraic systems as specializations of one "mother algebra" in various subfields of physics and engineering. Recent work shows that Clifford algebra provides a universal and powerful algebraic framework for an elegant and coherent representation of various problems occurring in computer science, signal processing, neural computing, image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision, and robotics.

This useful text offers new insights and solutions for the development of theorems, algorithms and advanced methods for real-time applications across a range of disciplines. Its accessible style is enhanced by examples, figures and experimental analysis.

This book offers a gentle introduction to Clifford geometric algebra, an advanced mathematical framework, for applications in perception action systems. Part I, is written in an accessible way allowing readers to easily grasp the mathematical system of Clifford algebra. Part II presents related topics. While Part 3 features practical applications for Computer Vision, Robotics, Image Processing and Neural Computing. Topics and Features include: theory and application of the quaternion Fourier and wavelet transforms, thorough discussion on geometric computing under uncertainty, an entire chapter devoted to the useful conformal geometric algebra, presents examples and hints for the use of public domain computer programs for geometric algebra. The modern framework for geometric computing highlighted will be of great use for communities working on image processing, computer vision, artificial intelligence, neural networks, neuroscience, robotics, control engineering, human and robot interfaces, haptics and humanoids.

The author defines “Geometric Algebra Computing” as the geometrically intuitive development of algorithms using geometric algebra with a focus on their efficient implementation, and the goal of this book is to lay the foundations for the widespread use of geometric algebra as a powerful, intuitive mathematical language for engineering applications in academia and industry. The related technology is driven by the invention of conformal geometric algebra as a 5D extension of the 4D projective geometric algebra and by the recent progress in parallel processing, and with the specific conformal geometric algebra there is a growing community in recent years applying geometric algebra to applications in computer vision, computer graphics, and robotics. This book is organized into three parts: in Part I the author focuses on the mathematical foundations; in Part II he explains the interactive handling of geometric algebra; and in Part III he deals with computing technology for high-performance implementations based on geometric algebra as a domain-specific language in standard programming languages such as C++ and OpenCL. The book is written in a tutorial style and readers should gain experience with the associated freely available software packages and applications. The book is suitable for students, engineers, and researchers in computer science, computational engineering, and mathematics.

After an introduction to geometric algebra, and the necessary math concepts that are needed, the book examines a variety of applications in the field of cognitive systems using geometric algebra as the mathematical system. There is strong evidence that geobetric albegra can be used to carry out efficient computations at all levels in the cognitive system. Geometric algebra reduces the complexity of algebraic expressions and as a result, it improves algorithms both in speed and accuracy. The book is addressed to a broad audience of computer scientists, cyberneticists, and engineers. It contains computer programs to clarify and demonstrate the importance of geometric algebra in cognitive systems.

This monograph-like anthology introduces the concepts and framework of Clifford algebra. It provides a rich source of examples of how to work with this formalism. Clifford or geometric algebra shows strong unifying aspects and turned out in the 1960s to be a most adequate formalism for describing different geometry-related algebraic systems as specializations of one "mother algebra" in various subfields of physics and engineering. Recent work shows that Clifford algebra provides a universal and powerful algebraic framework for an elegant and coherent representation of various problems occurring in computer science, signal processing, neural computing, image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision, and robotics.

Until recently, almost all of the interactions between objects in virtual 3D worlds have been based on calculations performed using linear algebra. Linear algebra relies heavily on coordinates, however, which can make many geometric programming tasks very specific and complex-often a lot of effort is required to bring about even modest performance enhancements. Although linear algebra is an efficient way to specify low-level computations, it is not a suitable high-level language for geometric programming. Geometric Algebra for Computer Science presents a compelling alternative to the limitations of linear algebra. Geometric algebra, or GA, is a compact, time-effective, and performance-enhancing way to represent the geometry of 3D objects in computer programs. In this book you will find an introduction to GA that will give you a strong grasp of its relationship to linear algebra and its significance for your work. You will learn how to use GA to represent objects and perform geometric operations on them. And you will begin mastering proven techniques for making GA an integral part of your applications in a way that simplifies your code without slowing it down. * The first book on Geometric Algebra for programmers in computer graphics and entertainment computing * Written by leaders in the field providing essential information on this new technique for 3D graphics * This full colour book includes a website with GAViewer, a program to experiment with GA

The goal of the Volume I Geometric Algebra for Computer Vision, Graphics and Neural Computing is to present a unified mathematical treatment of diverse problems in the general domain of artificial intelligence and associated fields using Clifford, or geometric, algebra. Geometric algebra provides a rich and general mathematical framework for Geometric Cybernetics in order to develop solutions, concepts and computer algorithms without losing geometric insight of the problem in question. Current mathematical subjects can be treated in an unified manner without abandoning the mathematical system of geometric algebra for instance: multilinear algebra, projective and affine geometry, calculus on manifolds, Riemann geometry, the representation of Lie algebras and Lie groups using bivector algebras and conformal geometry. By treating a wide spectrum of problems in a common language, this Volume I offers both new insights and new solutions that should be useful to scientists, and engineers working in different areas related with the development and building of intelligent machines. Each chapter is written in accessible terms accompanied by numerous examples, figures and a complementary appendix on Clifford algebras, all to clarify the theory and the crucial aspects of the application of geometric algebra to problems in graphics engineering, image processing, pattern recognition, computer vision, machine learning, neural computing and cognitive systems.

From the Foreword: "Dietmar Hildenbrand's new book, Introduction to Geometric Algebra Computing, in my view, fills an important gap in Clifford's geometric algebra literature...I can only congratulate the author for the daring simplicity of his novel educational approach taken in this book, consequently combined with hands on computer based exploration. Without noticing, the active reader will thus educate himself in elementary geometric algebra algorithm development, geometrically intuitive, highly comprehensible, and fully optimized." --Eckhard Hitzer, International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan Geometric Algebra is a very powerful mathematical system for an easy and intuitive treatment of geometry, but the community working with it is still very small. The main goal of this book is to close this gap with an introduction to Geometric Algebra from an engineering/computing perspective. This book is intended to give a rapid introduction to computing with Geometric Algebra and its power for geometric modeling. From the geometric objects point of view, it focuses on the most basic ones, namely points, lines and circles. This algebra is called Compass Ruler Algebra, since it is comparable to working with a compass and ruler. The book explores how to compute with these geometric objects, and their geometric operations and transformations, in a very intuitive way. The book follows a top-down approach, and while it focuses on 2D, it is also easily expandable to 3D computations. Algebra in engineering applications such as computer graphics, computer vision and robotics are also covered.