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Cover Preparation for Methods in Medical Informatics
by Jules Berman, Ph.D., M.D.

Author Information

• Author's home page
  
• Contact Jules J. Berman by email
  
• Publications of author
  
• Miscellaneous works of author
  
• Author's blog, Specified Life
  
• Author's blog, Machiavelli's Laboratory

For my latest book, Methods in Medical Informatics, Fundamentals of Healthcare Programming in Perl, Python and Ruby, the excellent and supportive production staff at CRC Press allowed me to contribute the cover image.

The book consists of algorithms implemented in equivalent Perl, Python and Ruby scripts. I wanted to provide an image that included symbols for all three programming languages. I decided to use a Pov-Ray 3-D image of reflective pearls, floating in an infinite background of tiled pythons, subdivided by a ruby-red grid.

The image was rendered with Pov-Ray, a free and open-source application available from:

www.povray.org

The PovRay script that generated the image is shown below. It's a modification of a basic, and frequently used, sphere-generator, that randomly positions spheres of different sizes throughout the image-scape.

The script uses one external image file: the head of a morulus python, cut from a photograph taken at the Trieste Aquarium in Italy, and contributed as a public domain image, now available at wikimedia.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trieste_Acquario_08.jpg

If you've never used PovRay, I hope this web page inspires you to try your hand at 3-d rendering. Feel free to play around with the PovRay script provided here, changing the lighting, the camera positions, the image-plane, and the tiles (in this case, a snake-head).

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Povray script:

global_settings { assumed_gamma 1.0 }   
 
#include "colors.inc"
#include "textures.inc"


// ----------------------------------------

camera {
  location  <5.0, -12.0, 2.0>
  up z sky z
  look_at   <0.0, 0.0, 0.5> 
  angle 30
}

sky_sphere {
  pigment {
    gradient z
    color_map {
      
      [0.1 rgb 0.1]
      [0.4 rgb 0.4]
      
    }
  }
}

light_source {
  <3, 1, 2>*20
  color rgb <2.2, 1.8, 1.5>
}   
           
light_source {
  <3, -1, 2>*20
  color rgb <2.2, 1.8, 1.5>
}              
           
           
// ----------------------------------------
         
         
plane {
    z,0     
    texture{
    pigment {image_map {png "c:\ftp\pov\snake_pub_bor_red_thin.png"}
    scale <1.5 1.55 1.5>} }
  }              

#macro Sphere(Pos, Radius)
  sphere {
    <Pos.x, Pos.y, -1 + Radius*3.3>, Radius
    texture {pigment{color Red} 
      finish{
        diffuse 0.0
        ambient 1.0
        specular 0.0
        reflection 1.0}}}
#end    
    
#local Cnt=0;
#local Seed=seed(0);

#while (Cnt<3000)
  Sphere(
    -100+<rand(Seed), rand(Seed)>*250, 
    0.3+pow(rand(Seed),2)*0.7
  )  
  #local Cnt=Cnt+1;
#end

#macro Sphere(Pos, Radius)
  sphere {
    <Pos.x, Pos.y, -1 + Radius*3.3>, Radius
    texture {
      pigment { Red }   
      finish{
        diffuse 0.0
        ambient 0.0
        specular 0.5
        reflection 1.0
      }
    }
  }
#end

#while (Cnt<6000)
  Sphere(
    -100+<rand(Seed), rand(Seed)>*250, 
    0.3+pow(rand(Seed),2)*0.7
  )  
  #local Cnt=Cnt+1;
#end

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   Last modified: September 30, 2010