Emerging Trends in Image Processing, Computer Vision, and Pattern Recognition, 1st Edition (2015)

Introduction

It gives me immense pleasure to present this edited book to the imaging science research community. As the title of this book (Emerging Trends in Image Processing, Computer Vision, and Pattern Recognition) suggests, this book addresses problems in the three intertwined areas: image processing, computer vision, and pattern recognition.

The collection of chapters compiled in the section entitled “Image and Signal Processing” presents solutions to imaging problems that use methods based on: noise reduction and removal (denoising), color filters, signal processing classifications, various forms of wavelet transformations, image quantization, processing of ultrasound and RF signals, image quality assessment, video processing, OCR, sampling methods, image coding, thresholding methods, image and mass segmentation, and a number of novel applications.

The collection of chapters compiled in the section entitled “Computer Vision and Recognition Systems” presents solutions to problems that use methods based on: machine learning, tracking, localization of areas of interests, artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, image retrieval, action recognition, image annotation, 3D simulation, Bayesian classifiers, biometrics, various forms of principal component analysis, depth image processing, Hough transform, 3D imaging, and a number of novel applications.

Lastly, the collection of chapters compiled in the section entitled “Registration, Matching, and Pattern Recognition” presents solutions to problems that use methods based on: template and correlation approaches, geometry-based registration, surface registration, Fourier transforms, active contours, camera calibration, distortion correction, field-of-view models, image kernels, distribution functions, projections, pattern unwrapping, detection and matching approaches, and a number of novel applications.

The chapters that appear in the three sections outlined above are extended versions of selected papers that were accepted for presentation at the 2013 and 2014 international conference on image processing, computer vision, and pattern recognition (IPCV’13 and IPCV’14), July, Las Vegas, USA. I was fortunate to be a coeditor of the proceedings of the above annual conferences where the preliminary versions of these chapters first appeared. I am grateful to all authors who submitted papers for consideration. I thank all referees and members of the editorial board of IPCV and WORLDCOMP. Without their help this book project would not have been initiated nor finalized.

I hope that you learn from and enjoy reading the chapters of this book as much as I did.