World-class early vision research work work on early vision, including con- tributions bv manv world-class rp-

From pixels to features by J C Simon (ed). Published by North- Holland, Netherlands. 1989. 416 pp. $94.75.

This book is the proceedings of a workshop held in Bonas, France, between August 22-27, 1988. It contains 35 papers covering various topics in image processing, feature detection, and hardware and soft- ware tools. The workshop was part of COST13, a cooperative project involving institutions from the Federal Republic of Germany, Fin- land, France, Norway and Switzer- land.

nition. The papers treat hierarchic- ally structured languages, control of multi-resolution image measure- ments, pyramid machines, quadtree representations, and the limitations of processor arrays.

Overall, this collection of papers is a good cross-section of current

._ searchers. The book is a good addi- tion to the literature, and belongs in every major library.

Azriel Rosenfeld Center for Automation Research,

University of Maryland, USA

The areas of image coding, en- hancement, and compression were represented by six papers. These dealt with detail-preserving smoothing (and its extension to colour images), sub-band image coding, contour sketch coding, 2D and 3D singular value decomposi- tion, scale space filtering, and ‘tog- gle mappings’.

The largest section of the book, containing 19 papers, is entitled ‘Feature detection and selection’. Specific topics covered include curve detection, Gaussian convolu- tion, shape from shading, Lie dif- ferential operators, texture analy- sis, synthesis and segmentation, Hough space methods, Fourier descriptors, R- and CT-transforms, edge detection (in range images), residual analysis, and contour description. Other papers in this section deal with tomographic im- age reconstruction, cortex-like net- works, relational models of shape, text recognition, and binary image classification. A paper by the editor describes a general approach to detection of ‘regular’ and ‘singular’ features in images.

A section on human and compu- ter vision contains four papers deal- ing with computation in cortical nets, labelling processes in human vision, motion detection and in- variant shape analysis, and contour shape representation.

The final section, containing six papers, is concerned wth hardware and software tools for image recog-

170

Excellent book for imaging generalists Imaging processes and materials by J M Sturge, V Walworth and A Shepp (eds). Published by Van Nos- trand Reinhold, USA. 1989. 712 pp. E59.50.

The first edition of ‘Neblette’s Handbook of Photography and Reprography’ was published in 1927; this book is its direct descen- dant, the eighth edition of the ‘Handbook’ and a veritable ency- clopaedia of imaging science and its applications.

In all, 36 contributors - all with American backgrounds but not par- ticularly parochial - were responsi- ble for the 20 chapters. The book is organized into five sections, provid- ing an introduction to imaging, the science and technology of image recording, image processing, trans- mission and output, applied imag- ing systems, and attributes of images and imaging systems.

It is unlikely that anyone can claim to be an expert in everything, so readers are inclined first to turn to the chapters dealing with that with which they feel most familiar. For example, the chapter on medi-

cal imaging has a competent review of traditional X-ray methods, and even includes a description of photo-stimulable phosphor image receptors; it discusses digital sub- traction angiography and CT; it has adequate overviews of nuclear magnetic resonance and radio- nuclide imaging; but the discussion of ultrasound is rather weak. That highlights the difficulty that this book shares with others of its kind: experts are inevitably disappointed with the treatment of the subjects in which they are the experts.

However, that does not really detract from the true value of the book: it succeeds both in providing an initial overview of every aspect of imaging - and that may be all that the reader requires - as a first point of reference for selective forays into the specialized litera- ture. In short, this is an excellent book for imaging specialists who want or need to be imaging general- ists.

Peter Wells Bristol General Hospital,

UK

- Breezy, beautiful and sophisticated The science of fractal images by H-O Peitgen and D Saupe. Pub- lished by Springer-Verlag, FRG. 1988. 312 pp. DM 69.

This is a beautiful book. From the glossy full-colour cover, through the numerous black-and-white and colour plates inside, the book is attractive enough to sit on the coffee-table in your living-room, where it will draw admiring ‘coos’

from the casual visitor who thumbs through it. The knowledgeable visi- tor, one who is interested in the emergence of chaos mathematics and the apparent preference of nature for fractal processes, will be equally appreciative of this well presented volume.

The book opens with a breezy and (thank God!) somewhat irrev- erent foreword by Mandebrot, who also contributes an appendix on

image and vision computing