Editorial IJCISIM Special Issue on “Computer Graphics and Geometric Modeling” Selected Papers from CGGM’2007 Workshop

Abstract

It is my pleasure and a great honor to introduce this IJCISIM Special Issue on Computer Graphics and Geometric Modeling based on (but not confined to) the papers accepted for the “Sixth International Workshop on Computer Graphics and Geometric Modeling - CGGM’2007” held at the Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China), May 27-30 2007. Although computer graphics and geometric modeling are two of the most dynamic and outstanding new areas in Computer Science, they barely appear as major themes in general computational science journals. This is not certainly the case for the International Journal of Computer Information Systems and Industrial Management Applications, IJCISIM journal; conversely, IJCISIM Editorin-Chief, Prof. Khalid Saeed immediately recognized their importance and kindly accepted my proposal to edit a special issue devoted to selected papers from the CGGM’2007 workshop. I am very grateful to the IJCISIM staff, and especially to its Editor-in-Chief Prof. Khalid Saeed, for having given me the opportunity to collect some of the most recent developments in these fields and to publish them in this special issue. Until recently, computer graphics was seen as a field whose requirements (expensive display devices, substantial computer resources, etc.) far exceeded those commonly available for computer scientists and researchers. Fortunately, in the last few years, the situation has changed dramatically: the field has greatly benefited from many spectacular developments in hardware and software leading to a drastic reduction in the hardware price/performance ratio and the appearance of powerful, high-level deviceindependent graphics packages and libraries. Nowadays, computer graphics is unanimously recognized as a major field in computer science with remarkable applications in a number of areas as diverse as science, engineering, medicine, business, education, advertising, entertainment, etc. In fact, almost every time we use a computer we are also using computer graphics since most computer programs, including the most popular operating systems, typically have a graphical user interface. Another exciting computer science field is that of geometric modeling. Strictly speaking, it is defined as a collection of methods to describe geometric characteristics of an object [6]. However, its most comprehensive meaning (which is also assumed in this issue) often includes the representation of curves and surfaces by using computers, a field usually referred to as Computer Aided Geometric Design (CAGD). Geometric modeling is a fundamental tool in many CAD/CAM settings, with outstanding applications in (among many others) the automotive, aerospace and shipbuilding industries, scientific simulations and visualization, computer animations, robotics, etc.