This intermediate-level tutorial provides an introduction to the visualization of quaternions and recent developments concerning quaternion applications to computer graphics and scientific visualization. We begin by covering the fundamental nature of quaternions, explaining where they become important in computer graphics, and describing the basic tools needed to apply them. We then pursue several recent topics for which quaternions are relevant and note updated approaches to selected graphics and visualization applications.

Level
Advanced

Intended Audience
People familiar with common mathematical methods of computer graphics interested in learning more details of quaternion methods with explicit example applications.

Prerequisites
Familiarity with animation and basic mathematics such
as matrices and linear algebra.

Presenter(s)
Andrew Hanson, Indiana University

Andrew J. Hanson has a BA degree in chemistry and physics and a PhD degree in theoretical physics, and is an Emeritus Professor at the Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing. His research includes machine vision, computer graphics, virtual reality, haptics, and scientific visualization. He is a designer of iPhone multi-touch App interfaces such as "4Dice" that provide interactive experience with the fourth dimension, a developer of quaternion-driven bioinformatics applications, and he is the author of "Visualizing Quaternions," an extensive monograph on quaternions.