| Geometric algebra is a powerful and practical framework for the representation and solution of geometrical problems. We believe it to be eminently suitable to those subfields of computer science in which such issues occur: computer graphics, robotics, and computer vision.We wrote this book to explain the basic structure of geometric algebra, and to help the reader become a practical user.We employ various tools to get there:
• Explanations that are not more mathematical than we deem necessary, connecting algebra and geometry at every step
• A large number of interactive illustrations to get the “object-oriented” feeling of constructions that are dependent only on the geometric elements in them (rather than on coordinates)
• Drills and structural exercises for almost every chapter
• Detailed programming examples on elements of practical applications
• An extensive section on the implementational aspects of geometric algebra (Part III of this book)
This is the first book on geometric algebra that has been written especially for the computer science audience. When reading it, you should remember that geometric algebra is fundamentally simple, and fundamentally simplifying. That simplicity will not always be clear; precisely because it is so fundamental, it does basic things in a slightly different way and in a different notation. This requires your full attention, notably in the beginning, when we only seem to go over familiar things in a perhaps irritatingly different manner. The patterns we uncover, and the coordinate-free way in which we encode them, will all pay off in the end in generally applicable quantitative geometrical operators and constructions. |
