Pattern recognition and computer vision and their applications have experienced enormous progress in research and development over the last two decades. This comprehensive handbook, with chapters by leading experts in their fields, documents both the basics and new and advanced results.The book gives the most total treatment of basic methods in pattern recognition including statistical, neurocomputing, syntactic/structural/grammatical approaches, feature selection and cluster analysis; and an extensive presentation of basic methods in computer vision including texture analysis and models, color, geometrical tools, image sequence analysis, etc. Major and unique applications are also covered, such as food handling using computer vision, non-destructive evaluation of materials, applications in economics and business, medical image recognition and understanding, etc. Broader system aspects are also examined, including optical pattern recognition and architectures for computer vision.Researchers, students and users of pattern recognition and computer vision will find the book an essential reference tool. The volume is also an invaluable collection of basic techniques and principles, which would otherwise be hard to assemble, in one convenient volume.