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Artificial intelligence and pattern recognition in computer aided design
with the movelist End' There are occasional statements which would have been appropriate in the original lecture notes but which are not appropriate in the new context, e.g. 'In the programming lectures we will see how to w r i t e . . . '. There are also some phrases such as 'That looks OK', which might have been better worded. There are now several texts surveying the field and philosophical issues of Artificial Intelligence, but few of these give the detailed instruction and knowledge so vital to an apprecia-
tion of the difficulties inherent in programming a computer- to operate on semantic information. In providing the detailed instruction this book makes an excellent companion to the general texts and a firm foundation for later more advanced work. Apart from its intended use as a reader for students the book should be of particular interest to those who want to check whether the techniques might someday be applied in their own line of work -- some of the tochniques have potentially a wide range of application - and to those who are keen to know something about the
design o! intelligent slaw' machine,. ]-he b~ok might also attract readel who enjoy intellectual puzzles ,is pastime for the pages are 2ic:h ill knotty problems. For the teacher there are useful appendices on teaching methods, the course structure, examination questions, further reading, and a selection of comments made by past students. Unfortunately there is no index. The book is good value for money at £7.50.
Roger Gi// University of Bristol
Artificial intelligence and pattern recognition in computer aided design Edited by Jean-Claude Latombe, North Holland (1978) 510 pp, $60 This book contains the twenty papers of the IFIP Working Conference held at Grenoble, France, in March 1978. The majority of papers focus upon a particular application area while attempting to describe some technical or theoretical concept. There are five papers covering graphics, four on aspects of circuit design, five describing the use of A.I. techniques in CAD, three on design knowledge representation and two excellent papers, one by Akin, the other by Herion which involve no computing and are not expositions of either A.I. or P.R. Presumably in the interests of rapid production the book has been compiled directly from the author's typescripts. Unfortunately this has led to many unnecessary errors of translation nd printing.
The book is aimed at those who are developing CAD systems. Latombe, in his preface, described the conference as a 'compendium of papers about the current and potential impact and use of A.I. and P.R. theories and techniques on CAD'. As such, the book might be expected to focus upon A.I. and P.R., but this intention is not realised. All but six of the papers are centred upon CAD. The A.I. papers stem from the engineering rather than the linguistic or psychological traditions within A.I., and are biased away from theoretical insight towards practical systems. In a conference intended to draw together strands from previously disparate fields, it might be expected that papers would display high standards of scholarship when dealing with referencing and bibliographies, so as to assist new entrants to this research. This expectation is not borne out. For instance the papers considering
the representation of design knowledge fail to mention Minsky's seminar paper of 1975 l, which describes a theory designed to cope with movement in add reasoning about three dimensional space. Such omissions damage the book's authority and make it difficult to recommend it as an introduction for workers in CAD to the disciplines of A.I. and P.R. Nevertheless this book is valuable in that it highlights the importance of A.I. as a means for the development of C.A.D. 1 Minsky, M 'A framework for representing knowledge' in Winston, P H The Psychology of Computer Vision. McGrawHill, New York (1975)
D S W/Hey University of Liverpool
Dimensions and tolerances in shape design Robin Hi//yard, University of Cambridge (1978)pp 186 Often when researchers approach the design of computer procedures which will perform tasks, formerly done by men, they discover that certain aspects, considered until then as straight-
244
forward, need careful study and formal treatment before any programming may be done. The analysis of dimensions and tolerances is a typical example of this kind, as it turned to be an essential step towards developing methods for generating engineering drawings of three-dimensional
objects. In this respect the book is an important step in the development of CAD/CAM systems. The book is concerned mainly with computeraided mechanical design, but developers of similar systems in other design areas (structural engineering, architecture, etc.) would perhaps benefit
computer-aided desigl
tion of the difficulties inherent in programming a computer- to operate on semantic information. In providing the detailed instruction this book makes an excellent companion to the general texts and a firm foundation for later more advanced work. Apart from its intended use as a reader for students the book should be of particular interest to those who want to check whether the techniques might someday be applied in their own line of work -- some of the tochniques have potentially a wide range of application - and to those who are keen to know something about the
design o! intelligent slaw' machine,. ]-he b~ok might also attract readel who enjoy intellectual puzzles ,is pastime for the pages are 2ic:h ill knotty problems. For the teacher there are useful appendices on teaching methods, the course structure, examination questions, further reading, and a selection of comments made by past students. Unfortunately there is no index. The book is good value for money at £7.50.
Roger Gi// University of Bristol
Artificial intelligence and pattern recognition in computer aided design Edited by Jean-Claude Latombe, North Holland (1978) 510 pp, $60 This book contains the twenty papers of the IFIP Working Conference held at Grenoble, France, in March 1978. The majority of papers focus upon a particular application area while attempting to describe some technical or theoretical concept. There are five papers covering graphics, four on aspects of circuit design, five describing the use of A.I. techniques in CAD, three on design knowledge representation and two excellent papers, one by Akin, the other by Herion which involve no computing and are not expositions of either A.I. or P.R. Presumably in the interests of rapid production the book has been compiled directly from the author's typescripts. Unfortunately this has led to many unnecessary errors of translation nd printing.
The book is aimed at those who are developing CAD systems. Latombe, in his preface, described the conference as a 'compendium of papers about the current and potential impact and use of A.I. and P.R. theories and techniques on CAD'. As such, the book might be expected to focus upon A.I. and P.R., but this intention is not realised. All but six of the papers are centred upon CAD. The A.I. papers stem from the engineering rather than the linguistic or psychological traditions within A.I., and are biased away from theoretical insight towards practical systems. In a conference intended to draw together strands from previously disparate fields, it might be expected that papers would display high standards of scholarship when dealing with referencing and bibliographies, so as to assist new entrants to this research. This expectation is not borne out. For instance the papers considering
the representation of design knowledge fail to mention Minsky's seminar paper of 1975 l, which describes a theory designed to cope with movement in add reasoning about three dimensional space. Such omissions damage the book's authority and make it difficult to recommend it as an introduction for workers in CAD to the disciplines of A.I. and P.R. Nevertheless this book is valuable in that it highlights the importance of A.I. as a means for the development of C.A.D. 1 Minsky, M 'A framework for representing knowledge' in Winston, P H The Psychology of Computer Vision. McGrawHill, New York (1975)
D S W/Hey University of Liverpool
Dimensions and tolerances in shape design Robin Hi//yard, University of Cambridge (1978)pp 186 Often when researchers approach the design of computer procedures which will perform tasks, formerly done by men, they discover that certain aspects, considered until then as straight-
244
forward, need careful study and formal treatment before any programming may be done. The analysis of dimensions and tolerances is a typical example of this kind, as it turned to be an essential step towards developing methods for generating engineering drawings of three-dimensional
objects. In this respect the book is an important step in the development of CAD/CAM systems. The book is concerned mainly with computeraided mechanical design, but developers of similar systems in other design areas (structural engineering, architecture, etc.) would perhaps benefit
computer-aided desigl