Brief Contents -- Contents in Detail -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Who Is This Book For? -- What's in This Book? -- Part I: Warming Up -- Part II: Simulating Life -- Part III: Fun with Images -- Part IV: Enter the 3D -- Part V: Hardware Hacking -- Why Python? -- Python Versions -- The Code in This Book -- Part I: Warming Up -- Chapter 1: Parsing iTunes Playlists -- Anatomy of the iTunes Playlist File -- Requirements -- The Code -- Finding Duplicates -- Extracting Duplicates -- Finding Tracks Common Across Multiple Playlists -- Collecting Statistics -- Plotting Your Data -- Command Line Options -- The Complete Code -- Running the Program -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Chapter 2: Spirographs -- Parametric Equations -- Spirograph Equations -- Turtle Graphics -- Requirements -- The Code -- The Spiro Constructor -- The Setup Functions -- The restart() Method -- The draw() Method -- Creating the Animation -- The SpiroAnimator Class -- The genRandomParams() Method -- Restarting the Program -- The update() Method -- Showing or Hiding the Cursor -- Saving the Curves -- Parsing Command Line Arguments and Initialization -- The Complete Code -- Running the Spirograph Animation -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Part II: Simulating Life -- Chapter 3: Conway's Game of Life -- How It Works -- Requirements -- The Code -- Representing the Grid -- Initial Conditions -- Boundary Conditions -- Implementing the Rules -- Sending Command Line Arguments to the Program -- Initializing the Simulation -- The Complete Code -- Running the Game of Life Simulation -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Chapter 4: Generating Musical Overtones with the Karplus-Strong Algorithm -- How It Works -- The Simulation -- Creating WAV Files -- The Minor Pentatonic Scale -- Requirements -- The Code -- Implementing the Ring Buffer with deque -- Implementing the Karplus-Strong Algorithm.

Writing a WAV File -- Playing WAV Files with pygame -- The main() Method -- The Complete Code -- Running the Plucked String Simulation -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Chapter 5: Boids: Simulating a Flock -- How It Works -- Requirements -- The Code -- Computing the Position and Velocities of the Boids -- Setting Boundary Conditions -- Drawing a Boid -- Applying the Rules of the Boids -- Adding a Boid -- Scattering the Boids -- Command Line Arguments -- The Boids Class -- The Complete Code -- Running the Boids Simulation -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Part III: Fun with Images -- Chapter 6: ASCII Art -- How It Works -- Requirements -- The Code -- Defining the Grayscale Levels and Grid -- Computing the Average Brightness -- Generating the ASCII Content from the Image -- Command Line Options -- Writing the ASCII Art Strings to a Text File -- The Complete Code -- Running the ASCII Art Generator -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Chapter 7: Photomosaics -- How It Works -- Splitting the Target Image -- Averaging Color Values -- Matching Images -- Requirements -- The Code -- Reading in the Tile Images -- Calculating the Average Color Value of the Input Images -- Splitting the Target Image into a Grid -- Finding the Best Match for a Tile -- Creating an Image Grid -- Creating the Photomosaic -- Adding the Command Line Options -- Controlling the Size of the Photomosaic -- The Complete Code -- Running the Photomosaic Generator -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Chapter 8: Autostereograms -- How It Works -- Perceiving Depth in an Autostereogram -- Depth Maps -- Requirements -- The Code -- Repeating a Given Tile -- Creating a Tile from Random Circles -- Creating Autostereograms -- Command Line Options -- The Complete Code -- Running the Autostereogram Generator -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Part IV: Enter 3D -- Chapter 9: Understanding OpenGL -- Old-School OpenGL.

Modern OpenGL: The 3D Graphics Pipeline -- Geometric Primitives -- 3D Transformations -- Shaders -- Vertex Buffers -- Texture Mapping -- Displaying OpenGL -- Requirements -- The Code -- Creating an OpenGL Window -- Setting Callbacks -- The Scene Class -- The Complete Code -- Running the OpenGL Application -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Chapter 10: Particle Systems -- How It Works -- Modeling the Motion of a Particle -- Setting a Maximum Spread -- Rendering the Particles -- Using OpenGL Blending to Create More Realistic Sparks -- Using Billboarding -- Animating the Sparks -- Requirements -- The Code for the Particle System -- Defining the Particle Geometry -- Defining the Time-Lag Array for the Particles -- Setting the Initial Particle Velocities -- Creating the Vertex Shader -- Creating the Fragment Shader -- Rendering -- The Camera Class -- The Complete Particle System Code -- The Box Code -- The Code for the Main Program -- Updating the Particles at Each Step -- The Keyboard Handler -- Managing the Main Program Loop -- The Complete Main Program Code -- Running the Program -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Chapter 11: Volume Rendering -- How It Works -- Data Format -- Generating Rays -- Displaying the OpenGL Window -- Requirements -- An Overview of the Project Code -- Generating a 3D Texture -- The Complete 3D Texture Code -- Generating Rays -- Defining the Color Cube Geometry -- Creating the Frame Buffer Object -- Rendering the Back-Faces of the Cube -- Rendering the Front-Faces of the Cube -- Rendering the Whole Cube -- The Resize Handler -- The Complete Ray Generation Code -- Volume Ray Casting -- The Vertex Shader -- The Fragment Shader -- The Complete Volume Ray Casting Code -- 2D Slicing -- The Vertex Shader -- The Fragment Shader -- A User Interface for 2D Slicing -- The Complete 2D Slicing Code -- Putting the Code Together.

The Complete Main File Code -- Running the Program -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Part V: Hardware Hacking -- Chapter 12: Introduction to the Arduino -- The Arduino -- The Arduino Ecosystem -- Language -- IDE -- Community -- Peripherals -- Requirements -- Building the Light-Sensing Circuit -- How the Circuit Works -- The Arduino Sketch -- Creating the Real-Time Graph -- The Python Code -- The Complete Python Code -- Running the Program -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Chapter 13: Laser Audio Display -- Generating Patterns with a Laser -- Motor Control -- The Fast Fourier Transform -- Requirements -- Constructing the Laser Display -- Wiring the Motor Driver -- The Arduino Sketch -- Configuring the Arduino's Digital Output Pins -- The Main Loop -- Stopping the Motors -- The Python Code -- Selecting the Audio Device -- Reading Data from the Input Device -- Computing the FFT of the Data Stream -- Extracting Frequency Information from the FFT Values -- Converting Frequency to Motor Speed and Direction -- Testing the Motor Setup -- Command Line Options -- Manual Testing -- The Complete Python Code -- Running the Program -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Chapter 14: A Raspberry Pi-Based Weather Monitor -- The Hardware -- The DHT11 Temperature and Humidity Sensor -- The Raspberry Pi -- Setting Up Your Pi -- Installing and Configuring Software -- The Operating System -- Initial Configuration -- Wi-Fi Setup -- Setting Up the Programming Environment -- Connecting via SSH -- The Bottle Web Framework -- Plotting with flot -- Shutting Down the Pi -- Building the Hardware -- The Code -- Handling Sensor Data Requests -- Plotting the Data -- The update() Method -- The JavaScript Handler for the LED -- Adding Interactivity -- The Complete Code -- Running the Program -- Summary -- Experiments! -- Appendix A: Software Installation.

Installing Source Code for the Book's Projects -- Installing on Windows -- Installing GLFW -- Installing Prebuilt Binaries for Each Module -- Other Options -- Installing on OS X -- Installing Xcode and MacPorts -- Installing Modules -- Installing on Linux -- Appendix B: Basic Practical Electronics -- Common Components -- Essential Tools -- Building Circuits -- Going Further -- Appendix C: Raspberry Pi Tips & Tricks -- Setting Up Wi-Fi -- Checking Whether Your Pi Is Connected -- Preventing the Wi-Fi Adapter from Going to Sleep -- Backing Up Your Code and Data from the Pi -- Backing Up Your Entire Pi OS -- Logging In to Your Pi with SSH -- Using the Raspberry Pi Camera -- Enabling Sound on Your Pi -- Making Your Pi Talk -- Making HDMI Work -- Making Your Pi Mobile -- Checking Your Raspberry Pi Hardware Version -- Index -- Resources -- More No-nonsense Books from No Starch Press -- About the Author.