Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
In
mathematical
terms, translation describes
movement of an object in space, with every point
of the object moving in the same direction over
the same distance, without any rotation, reflection,
or change in size. Transformations of drawings,
such as reflection, translation, and rotation may
help extend our knowledge about geometric rela-
tionship. In
geometry
, figures can display transla-
tional symmetry among other types of geometrical
symmetry. Translation moves geometric figure
by sliding, so each of its points moves the same
distance in the same direction.
Fractal geometry
describes self-similar or scale symmetric objects
called fractals, which are ragged at every scale, not
as smooth as Euclidean lines, planes, and spheres,
and they do not display translational symmetry.
The mathematician Benoit B. Mandelbrot coined
the name of fractals from the Latin verb frangere,
“to break into pieces,” as well as the related adjec-
tive fractious, “irregular and fragmented.”
The concept of translation was applied to
the construction of
computer languages
. At first
instructions and data were entered through the
medium of punched cards, coded in a symbolic
language, which used mnemonic symbols to
represent instructions. They must be translated
into machine language before being executed by
the computer, so the computer may understand
high-level languages that are closer to natural lan-
guages. The first programmer was the Lord Byron's
daughter, Augusta Ada Byron, the countess of
Lovelace (1815-1852); a programming language
Ada was named in her honor. Navy Commodore
Grace Murray Hopper (1996-1992) developed one
of the first translation programs for the Mark I
computer in 1944. The machine code was recorded
on a magnetic drum. Computing programming
languages allow achieving translations and adap-
tations of artificial intelligence (AI) systems and
genetic algorithms to digital media (The Carnegie
Library of Pittsburg, 2011). However, as noted
by Margaret Boden (2006), a perfect translation
is not a simple matter, both in case of translating
one computer language into another for the sake
of artificial intelligence research and in human
languages translations: “Even
Please give me six
cans of baked beans
will cause problems, if one of
the languages codes the participants' social status
by the particular word chosen for
Please
” (Boden,
2006, p. 4). There are two types of translators.
The compiler converts the program to low-level
languages (machine- and assembly languages)
to be executed later. The interpreter converts and
executes each statement (Ebrahimi, 2003).
In
computer graphics
, construction methods
serve to build the solids from simple shapes. In
the context of the advanced modeling of complex
surfaces, sweeping a two-dimensional figure
through a particular area produces solids with
translational or rotational symmetry. Solid geom-
etry methods involve operations that joint objects
to produce a single solid. Spline is a flexible strip
used to produce a smooth curve through a set of
plotted control points, and spline curves are drawn
in this manner.
In the domain of
verbal communication
, one
may notice several ways of translating and me-
diating a meaning to a verbal statement. Manuel
Lima (2011), a designer, researcher and founder
of the resource space for anyone interested in the
visualization of complex networks, describes the
syntax of a language as a new network visualization
lexicon, the vocabulary of the particular language.
The information-driven network culture unifies the
two rising disciplines - network science (which
examines interconnections of natural or artificial
systems) and information visualization (which
translates data into meaningful information thus
bridging data and knowledge). A collection of the
interconnectedness examples, arranged by Lima
in alphabetical order (2011, pp. 97-158) includes:
•
Blogosphere:
Which changes the flow of
online information across online social
communities; blogosphere maps distinct
aspects, from charting the link exchange
