Textures by P. Brodatz (review)

264 Books process is largely independent of visual considerations but provides many well defined and as yet unsolved theoretical problems. (The first stage is mere engineering according to this view.) This statistical aspect of pattern recognition is well in evidence in this book. Twelve of the papers are devoted to it and they are almost completely devoid of reference to visual matters. In order to do a count of the papers with a visual content, I included those containing computer analysis or generation of graphics, photographs or TV images. Also included was any study of visual form, however simple. I found only eight papers dealing with visual matters and four more that had a very slight visual content. ‘Pattern Cognition and the Organization of Information’, a paper by S. Kaneff, argues for the building of working systems that interact with real environments and integrate sensory, perceptive and conceptual functions. A way must be found of including a large amount of knowledge in such a system. Clearly, if the subject matter of current research is proportionally represented by the contents of this book, then, according to Kaneff‘s views, most of it is to little purpose. Papers in line with Kaneff’s views and, hence, likely to be interesting for people concerned with visual matters are mentioned below. A short paper describes the M.I.T. system for scene understanding, where ‘scene’ is mainly the world of toy building blocks. Also ‘Some Techniques for Recognizing Structures in Pictures’ is a very practical paper from the Edinburgh University Department of Machine Intelligence. and Perception. Two papers specificallydeal with the problem of describing shape. Pavlidis represents a shape by convex regions and their interrelationships, using a labeled graph. Langridge explores the very difficult problem of describing the ‘general blob’. Definition of the problem itself is difficult and close to the concerns of many artists (even if they are not aware of it!). Practical applications are described in papers on detection of boundaries in radiographic images, identification of bacteria, recognition of human faces and analysis of photomicrographs of nerve fibres. In the last application , the machine is taught by its human operator how to recognize the fibres. The book does not include a typescript of discussions and the subject index is inadequate and superficial. Textures. P. Brodatz. Dover, New York, 1966. 124 pp., illus. Paper. $3.00. Reviewed by Michael Thompson* There are 112 black and white plates in this album; excellent photographs of textiles, types of paper, pebbles, polished stones, woven straw, wood grain and so on. There are a few textures from outdoor scenes: sky, water, grass and sea-shore. However, most of the plates are studio close-ups printed actual size or at low magnification. Some of the textures are generated by optical effects and might be called abstract patterns but the great majority are clearly recognizable; indeed, they sometimes gave me the impression that I was looking at the real thing. A short introduction gives some indication of how and why Brodatz carried out this work but the account of methods is superficial. The kind of lighting is mentioned under each plate together with the magnification. The textures are of value to commercial artists or photographers for making up layouts of advertising and packing. Also the book is well worth obtaining for the pleasure of looking. It should be noted, however, that it is primarily an album of photographs of the surfaces of materials, rather than a broad study of textures-indeed, textures produced by artists are not included. The plates invited me to reach through them to attempt to touch a material surface behind them. In very few of the plates is the photograph itself the texture. Nevertheless, as a source of ideas for artists and teachers it is the kind of book that they should have on hand. *1 Remez Road, Kadimah, Israel. Cast Metals Technology. J. Gerin Sylvia. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1972. 338 pp., illus. Reviewed by Nigel Konstam** This book is very clearly written and well illustrated but, as Sylvia points out in his preface, its purpose is to provide a comprehensive survey of equipment, materials and operations widely used in the metal casting industry...