Book excerpts:

During the past decade (this book was written in 1993), high-performance computer graphics have found application in an exciting and expanding range of new domains. Among the most dramatic developments has been the incorporation of real-time interactive manipulation and display for human figures. The problem of providing a synthetic or surrogate human as well as the details of its methodology and software environment are presented in this volume.

The book is intended for human factors engineers interested in understanding how a computer-graphics surrogate human can augment their analyses of designed environments. It will also inform design engineers of the state of the art in human figure modeling, and hence of the human-centered design central to the emergent concept of concurrent engineering. In fulfilling these goals, the book additionally documents for the entire computer graphics community a major research effort in the interactive control of articulated human figures.