Image processing and image analysis are typically important fields in information science and technology. By “image processing”, we generally understand all kinds of operation performed on images (or sequences of images) in order to increase their quality, restore their original content, emphasize some particular aspect of the information or optimize their transmission, or to perform radiometric and/or spatial analysis. By “image analysis” we understand, however, all kinds of operation performed on images (or sequences of images) in order to extract qualitative or quantitative data, perform measurements and apply statistical analysis. Whereas there are nowadays many books dealing with image processing, only a small number deal with image analysis. The methods and techniques involved in these fields of course have a wide range of applications in our daily world: industrial vision, material imaging, medical imaging, biological imaging, multimedia applications, satellite imaging, quality control, traffic control, and so on

Jean-Charles Pinoli is Full Professor at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines, Saint-Etienne, France.