JOURNAL OF REAL-TIME IMAGING, Academic Press
SPECIAL ISSUE
Has the Hough Transform Come of Age?

GUEST EDITORS:
  Luciano da Fontoura Costa
    Cybernetic Vision Research Group
    IFSC - University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
    Caixa Postal 369
    Sao Carlos - SP - 13560-970 - Brazil
    e-mail:  luciano@ifqsc.sc.usp.br
    WWW:
http://www.ifqsc.sc.usp.br/visao/group/members/luciano/luciano.htm

  Harry Wechsler
    Computer Science Department
    George Mason University, USA
    Fairfax, VA 22030
    E-Mail: wechsler@cs.gmu.edu
    WWW: http://chagall.gmu.edu

Introduced as a patent in 1962, the Hough transform has motivated
great interest as a potentially effective technique for real-time
pattern recognition, being applied to the most diverse situations
ranging from astronomy to biscuit quality control.  Despite the
seeming simplicity of the technique, those who have tried to apply it
to more demanding problems soon realized that the approach entails a
series of not so straightforward problems, such as those caused by the
discrete nature of the image and parameter spaces, which have
motivated a series of investigations and publications.  In fact, some
of the most interesting and fruitful works on Hough transform have
been characterized by an integrated approach considering the
relationships between the Hough transform and other related and
complementary areas and techniques such as discrete geometry;
projections; Radon, Fourier, and Gabor transforms; and matched
filtering, to name but a few.

After so many years of investigations on the Hough transform, a number
of questions remain to be answered, such as:
   * Should the Hough transform be treated as a technique in itself or
     only a special case of more general concepts?  =
   * Have we fully understood and circumvented the Hough transform
     shortcomings?
   * How does the Hough transform compare with alternative techniques? 
   * What are the most effective algorithms for real-time applications? 
   * How can the Hough transform be effectively implemented in software
     and hardware?
   * In brief: Has the Hough transform come of age?

Every relevant and original development which can help to answer such
questions is welcomed for appreciation for the Special Issue of JRTI.

IMPORTANT DATES:
* 15th Jul. 1998 - submission of five copies of the article;
* 15th Nov. 1998 - authors informed about acceptance;

The INFORMATION TO AUTHORS can be found at the following address:
http://www.hbuk.co.uk/ap/journals/ri.htm
All submissions should be forwarded to Luciano da Fontoura Costa
(address as above).