The book is a summary of a time series forecasting competition that was held a number of years ago. The competition used four different kinds of time series (for example, one data set was chaotic from measurements of a laser, and another was a multidimensional physiological times series of heart beats and respiration, etc.).
The strength of the book lies in that it represents several ways to approach real time series prediction strategies in a concrete way - Invaluable, especially to researchers who may be just beginning.
Neil Gershenfeld is the Director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, and the former director of its famed Media Lab. The author of numerous technical publications, patents, and books, including When Things Start to Think, he has been featured in media such as the New York Times, The Economist, CNN, and PBS. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.