The series of IFAC Workshops on distributed computer control systems (DCCS) provide the opportunity for leading researchers and practitioners in the field to discuss and evaluate recent advances and current issues in theory, applications and technology of DCCS. DCCS'95, the 13th IFAC workshop in the series was held in Toulouse-Blagnac, France. The topics covered at this meeting included: the role of real-time in DCCS specifications; scheduling methods for DCCS; real-time distributed operating systems and databases and industrial applications and experience with DCSS.

Despite widespread interest in virtual reality, research and development efforts in synthetic environments (SE)â€"the field encompassing virtual environments, teleoperation, and hybridsâ€"have remained fragmented. Virtual Reality is the first integrated treatment of the topic, presenting current knowledge along with thought-provoking vignettes about a future where SE is commonplace. This volume discusses all aspects of creating a system that will allow human operators to see, hear, smell, taste, move about, give commands, respond to conditions, and manipulate objects effectively in a real or virtual environment. The committee of computer scientists, engineers, and psychologists on the leading edge of SE development explores the potential applications of SE in the areas of manufacturing, medicine, education, training, scientific visualization, and teleoperation in hazardous environments. The committee also offers recommendations for development of improved SE technology, needed studies of human behavior and evaluation of SE systems, and government policy and infrastructure.

The author has maintained two open-source MATLAB Toolboxes for more than 10 years: one for robotics and one for vision. The key strength of the Toolboxes provide a set of tools that allow the user to work with real problems, not trivial examples. For the student the book makes the algorithms accessible, the Toolbox code can be read to gain understanding, and the examples illustrate how it can be used —instant gratification in just a couple of lines of MATLAB code. The code can also be the starting point for new work, for researchers or students, by writing programs based on Toolbox functions, or modifying the Toolbox code itself. The purpose of this book is to expand on the tutorial material provided with the toolboxes, add many more examples, and to weave this into a narrative that covers robotics and computer vision separately and together. The author shows how complex problems can be decomposed and solved using just a few simple lines of code, and hopefully to inspire up and coming researchers. The topics covered are guided by the real problems observed over many years as a practitioner of both robotics and computer vision. It is written in a light but informative style, it is easy to read and absorb, and includes a lot of Matlab examples and figures. The book is a real walk through the fundamentals of robot kinematics, dynamics and joint level control, then camera models, image processing, feature extraction and epipolar geometry, and bring it all together in a visual servo system. Additional material is provided at http://www.petercorke.com/RVC

Ideal for PC owners looking for an accessible, easy-to-follow reference, this beginner's guide to PC hardware offers expert advice on every component--processors, motherboards, memory, BIOS, CD-ROM and DVD drives, video cards, and much more. You'll also get details on external devices, including monitors, printers, keyboards, and modems. The book covers both Intel and non-Intel CPUs and USB and AGP ports.

Here is a laboratory workbook filled with interesting and challenging projects for digital logic design and embedded systems classes. The workbook introduces you to fully integrated modern CAD tools, logic simulation, logic synthesis using hardware description languages, design hierarchy, current generation field programmable gate array technology, and SoPC design. Projects cover such areas as serial communications, state machines with video output, video games and graphics, robotics, pipelined RISC processor cores, and designing computer systems using a commercial processor core.

The book compiles the research works related to smart solutions concept in context to smart energy systems, maintaining electrical grid discipline and resiliency, computational collective intelligence consisted of interaction between smart devices, smart environments and smart interactions, as well as information technology support for such areas. It includes high-quality papers presented in the International Conference on Intelligent Computing Techniques for Smart Energy Systems organized by Manipal University Jaipur. This book will motivate scholars to work in these areas. The book also prophesies their approach to be used for the business and the humanitarian technology development as research proposal to various government organizations for funding approval.