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).