Special Issue on Computer Vision

Abstract

aSince its first developments in the late 60's, Computer Vision has been the object of int ensive research efforts worldwide. The dream of making machines see and think, although far from being fulfilled, has driven researchers to study a wide area of topics including sem;or design, image processing and image understanding, pattern recognition, perception, psychophysics, as well as special purpose computer architectures [or vision. CompUTer Vision is a key technology that finds application in industrial inspection, quality control. robotics, medicine, document processing, and arts & entenainment. Over the past years, and with the help of spectacular advances in the fields of sensor development and computer processing power, Computer Vision has found new areas of application such as content-based image retrieval, human-machine int erfaces, Web appli cations of vision systems, im age compression, virtual and augmented real ity, face recognition, surveillance, and h eritage applications. However, even though cameras are evel}'where, CompUTer Vision still faces exciting challenges in making these came ras see and un derstarl d their environment in real-time. Vision systems found in Nature are not only diffict.ilt to understand but are also difficult to replicate in terms of simpli city and pedormance.