3 comments about Solar Electricity, 2nd Edition.

1. This book is one of the best I have read on the subject of photovoltaic (PV) systems. It has a good balance between all areas of PV system design. Most books with this level of technical content are too skewed toward semiconductor physics and neglect system-level issues. This one covers everything from PV devices (solar cells) to power converters to batteries to system design, and includes useful sections on justification for PV, system application examples, and environmental impacts. The organization and flow are clear and logical. The only problems are some unclear typesetting, exclusion of background on some key equations (references to the literature are included, though), and a little bit of non-standard notation (i.e. G is used for irradiation, not irradiance). Summary: I highly recommend this book for technically literate readers interested in PV systems.



2. If you're looking for a start book on Photovoltaics (PV),this is the one to start with. Dr. Markvart takes you from the principle of solar irradiation, to complete design of a PV generator. He explains himself very easily when talking about solar cell's operation and manufacturing process. When he arrives to PV System Engineering, he shows you exactly all the steps you have to follow for sizing a proper PV system. IF what you're looking for is complete design procedures for PV system, including charge controllers, inverters, battery chargers, this is a good start, but will not help much for designing purpouses. For this you should look for Photovoltaic System Engineering by Dr. Roger Messenger. Another good book by Markvart is Practical PV Handbook; together with Solar Electricity, is a great pack for designers or scientifics working with PV systems.



3. Tomas Markvart is well-known and highly regarded for his microgrid research at the University of Southampton and the Tyndall Centre. Solar Electricity was written for the UNESCO Energy Engineering Series distance learning package, and was intended to be self-contained and accessible to upper level energy engineering students everywhere. Published in 2000, it's still one of the best introductions to the engineering of photovoltaic systems. The detailed Table of Contents on this page gives a good overview of the subjects it covers.

1 comments about Speckle Phenomena in Optics.

1. Another phenomenal book from Joe Goodman - everything you really need to know about Speckle presented with crystal clarity, as usual. Simply superb.

1 comments about Sensor and Data Fusion: A Tool for Information Assessment and Decision Making (SPIE Press Monograph Vol. PM138).

1. The book is of great depth and still wide in the diverse areas of data fusion.
   
   Real world examples are picked up and related to data fusion technologies or methods.
   
   It is a good start to the solution of any problem that deals with fusing information, of all types and sorts.
   
   José Freitas - Madeira - Portugal

5 comments about Seeing the Light.

1. This is the best textbook I ever had, and I sold it for some ($$$) at the end of a semester to buy a bus ticket. Very mad; I miss the book, but it's so expensive. It's amazing the way the author incorporates all sorts of literary allusions in this physics book, such as offering an interesting hypothesis on the optical illusion of the egyptians getting swallowed by the red sea while chasing the jews. Every chapter, light becomes a metaphor for so many things, the way we see, the obstacles, etc.



2. Book arrived in great shape. Like new!!



3. Particularly for a budding Optometrist, this book allows the Optometrist to be acquainted with all the fine arts of optics and the like.



4. The book arrived quickly and in the condition that was specified. No issues, would use this seller again.



5. One of the best science textbooks I've ever read. Clearly written and interesting to read. Heavy on concepts, light on math. Diagrams are simple but effective. It's rare to see a physics book as approachable as this one. As an amateur photographer and research microscopist, I love this book. Some parts of the text are a bit outdated (remember it was published in 1986), but the vast majority is valuable information. This is a great tool for physics students and teachers.

5 comments about Image Sensors and Signal Processing for Digital Still Cameras.

1. The optics chapter (2) is pretty lousy. The part for sensors are just excellent. I found it systematically reviewed I've been reading fragmently from here and there for the past few months. My life would have been much better if I got this book earlier!!



2. This is an excellent book. It covers a wide range of topics in a very detailed manner, suitable for university level students and professionals.
   
   So far I have found only one error in the book. There is something terribly wrong in paragraph 2.2.2, page 32. It is stated that "Depth of the field - ... - is proportional to the square of the focal length of the imaging optics." In fact, the depth of field is inversely proportional to the focal length. Then Eq. 2.11 on page 33 is described once as giving a hyperfocal distance (above the equation) and below the equation is described as giving the depth of the field. I think this part seems to be missing some lines.
   
   Overall, I highly recommend this book if you are looking for something at a technically advanced level.



3. I read many parts of this book and I think that
   it was well written for a wide range of users from optics to image quality metrics.
   
   I strongly recommend it to all graduate students/engineers in CMOS imaging.
   
   I wish I got it during my grad studies....but it is never late to learn and enjoy!!! :-)
   
   I give 10 stars to this book...Good luck and hope to see more like this.
   
   Note: I hope to see the optics chapter be re-written and posted with corrections on the Web. I believe this should be done soon and mentioned in amazon.com. Thank you.



4. I have reviewed quite a few books on cameras and image sensors. Being in the business, I have quite a large library of books related to this field. However, Nakamura nailed it all with this book. A very well written - almost in layman's terms - that addresses all the technical components that make up a camera. If you are looking to understand the principles of a digital camera, this book is for you.



5. This book focuses on image acquisition and signal processing in digital still cameras (DSC's). From the perspective of the flow of image information, a DSC consists of imaging optics, an image sensor, and a signal processing block that receives a signal from the image sensor and generates digital data that is eventually compressed andstored on a memory device in the DSC.
   
   Chapters one and two are at a rather high level and introductory. However, in chapter 3 the book gets much more specific. Chapter 3 discusses the functions and performance parameters common to CCD and CMOS image sensors. Chapter 4 describes in detail the CCD image sensors widely used in imaging applications. The chapter ranges from a discussion of basic CCD operating principles to descriptions of CCDimage sensors specifically designed for DSC applications. Chapter 5 discusses CMOS image sensor technology. Chapter 6, the final chapter focusing on sensors, describes methods for evaluating image sensor performances relative to DSC requirements.
   
   Chapter 7 shifts gears and begins the discussing of image processing algorithms. The discussion begins with color theory and its application to DSCs. Chapter 8 presents the algorithms utilized by DSC's in both hardware and software. Basic image processing and camera control algorithms are shown along with some image processing examples. Chapter 9 discusses the performance parameters for DSCs and digital video cameras followed by descriptions of the architectures of signal processing engines. Examples of the analog front-end and the digital back-end designs are introduced. Chapter 10 shows how each component previously described affects image quality. The final chapter discusses future DSC image sensors and explores a new paradigm for image sensors.
   
   The reader should have an electrical engineering background since there are quite a few circuit diagrams shown involving transistors, and it is hard to follow the discussion if you are not already aware of their theory of operation. It is a very good book for its target audience, but students with pure computer science backgrounds who are coming to this looking for just the mathematics or algorithms of image processing may found themselves lost in the discussions involving pn junctions, which are numerous.

5 comments about The Return of the Solar Cat Book.

1. I teach Middle School students all about the world in our tiny self-contained rural school. The topic of solar energy comes up in our physics curriculum; political aberrations are often discussed in our current events class; and, needless to say,we often share pet stories, especially reports on kitty capers.
   I loved The Return of the Solar Cat Book immediately, and I realized my students were ready to appreciate it too. I took a chance and shared it with my students.It was a great decision. They adore the drawings, the author's wry wit, and the way the
   book makes difficult science concepts very accessible.Now we learn and giggle together. I love it. Thank you, Jim Augustyn



2. One of the cleverest, funniest and most informative pieces of science writing to come along in years. Augustyn is equal parts Woody Allen and Stephen Hawking. But make no mistake: "The Return of the Solar Cat Book" is not only a rollicking good read and a visual delight, but an important contribution to the current debate over the nation's energy future. "It's the sun, stupid!" Augustyn is saying. "And here's why -- and how." Should be required reading for Presidents Bush and Putin, Energy Secy. Abraham and Ken Lay. Augustyn is way over the top. I wish I'd thought of "meowium" first.



3. Jim Augustyne takes the Suessian approach to showing the reader our myopia when it comes to the nature of renewable energy, politics, and economics. Solar Energy is nature's way and cats are fundamentally in tune with nature. Even though Augustyne does not use rhyme to make his point, the reason is shown through the fun-house mirror of technologically advanced felines, and their 'natural' instincts and behaviour, optimized for solar utilization. Augustyne has developed an alternate universe of whimsy and pointy satire where kitties rule and our human foibles and blindness to the advantages of solar renewables are entertainingly exposed. The text and drawings unerringly capture feline personality and 'technical' accumen. A real entertainment bargain with a sideways squint at education. For real kids and kids at heart, like engineers, teachers, businessmen, homeowners, and politicians, of all ages.



4. This whimsical look at a usually dead-serious subject (solar energy, not cats) allows the information to sneak in under the "I can't learn that" radar. Cat lovers will especially enjoy the book, but non-cat lovers can also appreciate its charming approach to the subject. My four cats give it sixteen paws up. I give it two thumbs!



5. This is a very funny yet extremely informative book with great illustrations about solar power using cats as examples. Very enjoyable!

2 comments about Dynamic Light Scattering: With Applications to Chemistry, Biology, and Physics.

1. Dynamic Light Scattering is a classic text, that presents a comprehensive and in-depth overview of the underlying physics and principles of DLS. The description is developed with the associated mathematics of fluctuations and time correlation functions, as well as various physical aspects of Brownian Motion. Examples drawn from physics, chemistry and biology are used to illustrate the usefullness of DLS in studying a diverse range of problems including cell motility, macromolecular dynamics, dynamics of anisotropics objects (rod-like particles, viruses), electrolytic solutions, etc. The book is ESSENTIAL for everyone with interest in 1) dynamics of complex fluids 2) Brownian Motion of particles and 3) Single Molecule Imaging!
   
   The text is a beautifully written treatise on various applications of DLS, with a very insightful commentary on how various dynamics is detected by light, how underlying structure and relaxations translate to observable, how observables can be deduced by mathematical principles based on statistical mechanics (including non-equilibrium thermodynamics). This is a fairly advanced text, so I would advise someone to get a soft introduction to his/her topic of choice (polymers, gels, rods, colloids, cells, polyelectrolytes, etc.) and basic statistical mechanics before picking this text. Being a Dover publication, the book is priced cheaper than it ought to be:), and hence must make its way to the shelf of people who have any lasting interest in DLS. The book by Wyn Brown is a useful supplementary text (and includes more modern references, but comes at a high price). This book is an exercise in the mathematics of correlation functions, and associated hydrodynamics equations, and definitely requires concerted effort to become beneficial to the reader.



2. I find that Dover's books are simply excellent and this text is no exception. The order of the material in the book is logical: starting with the basics of autocorrelation to how Maxwell's equations lead to intensity of scattered radiation. Then, that crucial leap from the theory of scattering to how radiation is measured by different detectors is made and what they lead to in terms of correlation functions. The book expands on the basics of ideal, non-interacting isotropic scatters to more complex situations. Many references are provided. Since DLS has applications in protein dynamics, I used this text as background.

No comments about Light (Stop Faking It! Finally Understanding Science So You Can Teach It series) (Robertson, William C. Stop Faking It!,).

No comments about Smart CMOS Image Sensors and Applications (Optical Science and Engineering).

5 comments about Red, Blue, Yellow Shoe.

1. This book is a favorite at our house! The durable book has one large, colorful photograph of a common item on each page. The item's name and color are printed at the bottom (yellow shoe, red clock, black cat, etc.). It's easy for little hands to turn the pages as well as focus on each page. So many children's books these days seem to have TOO much information on each page. This book finds a way to attract the reader in a simple way with its beautiful photographs.



2. My daughter really enjoys this book. It is simple and gives toddlers a chance to learn their colors. We've read it so many times my daughter who is two can now read it herself!



3. As my son grew older and more interested in colors, I looked for a book that would delight him as much as "Black on White" (also by Tana Hoban) had when he was an infant. I thought this book would fill that description, but it didn't quite fit the bill. It has great photographs, but no text.

   Despite the catchy, rhyming title, each page shows only a picture of the item: No rhyming text is involved. Although my son likes the brightly colored pictures, he is more interested when I read books with rhythmic texts, such as "Blue Hat, Green Hat" by Sandra Boynton.




4. We have six children, and this is/was the hands-down favorite of all our children as toddlers. We received it as a gift when our 13 yo was a baby, and now our toddler twins are enjoying it. I believe our children learned their color names from this book. They also like Hoban's "Black on White." I wouldn't hesitate to buy this for any under 2's you might have.



5. I love Tana Hoban so when I found she did colored images I was very excited. The photos are nice, crisp and right on target with the colors. Simple color learning book.