Energy Minimization Methods in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition

This volume consists of the 33 papers presented at the International Workshop on Energy Minimization Methods in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (EMMCVPR 2003)which was held at Instituto Superior T¿ ecnico (IST), the - gineeringSchooloftheTechnicalUniversityofLisbon,PortugalduringJuly7-9, 2003.Thisworkshopwasthefourthinthe serieswhichstartedwithEMMCVPR 1997 held in Venice, Italy in May 1997 and continued with EMMCVPR 1999 held in York, UK in July 1999 and EMMCVPR 2001 held in Sophia-Antipolis, France in September 2001. Many problems in computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR) are couchedintheframeworkofoptimization.Theminimizationofaglobalquantity, often referred to as the energy, forms the bulwark of most approachesin CVPR. Disparate approaches,such as discrete and probabilistic formulations on the one hand and continuous, deterministic strategies on the other, often have optimi- tion or energy minimization as a common theme. Instances of energy minimi- tion arise in Gibbs/Markov modeling, Bayesian decision theory, geometric and variational approaches and in areas in CVPR such as object recognition and - trieval, image segmentation, registration, reconstruction, classi?cation and data mining. The aim of the EMMCVPR workshops is to bring together researchers with interests in these disparate areas of CVPR but with an underlying commitment to some form of energy minimization. Although the subject is traditionally well representedinmajorinternationalconferencesonCVPR,thisworkshopprovides a forum wherein researchers can report their recent work and engage in more informal discussions.