The many different mathematical techniques used to solve pattem recognition problems may be grouped into two general approaches: the decision-theoretic (or discriminant) approach and the syntactic (or structural) approach. In the decision-theoretic approach, aset of characteristic measurements, called features, are extracted from the pattems. Each pattem is represented by a feature vector, and the recognition of each pattem is usually made by partitioning the feature space. Applications of decision-theoretic approach indude character recognition, medical diagnosis, remote sensing, reliability and socio-economics. A relatively new approach is the syntactic approach. In the syntactic approach, ea ch pattem is expressed in terms of a composition of its components. The recognition of a pattem is usually made by analyzing the pattem structure according to a given set of rules. Earlier applications of the syntactic approach indude chromosome dassification, English character recognition and identification of bubble and spark chamber events. The purpose of this monograph is to provide a summary of the major reeent applications of syntactic pattem recognition. After a brief introduction of syntactic pattem recognition in Chapter 1, the nin e mai n chapters (Chapters 2-10) can be divided into three parts. The first three chapters concem with the analysis of waveforms using syntactic methods. Specific application examples indude peak detection and interpretation of electro cardiograms and the recognition of speech pattems. The next five chapters deal with the syntactic recognition of two-dimensional pictorial pattems."

The technological developments of the last ten years have made com puter graphics and image processing by computer popular. Pictorial pat tern recognition has also shown significant progress. Clearly, there exist overlapping interests among the three areas of research. Graphic displays are of concern to anyone involved in image processing or pic torial pattern recognition and many problems in graphics require methodologies from image processing for their solutions. The data structures used in all three areas are similar. It seems that there is a common body of knowledge underlying all three areas, pictorial informa tion processing by computer. The novelty of these fields makes it difficult to design a course or to a write a book covering their basic concepts. Some of the treatises on graphics focus on the hardware and methods of current interest while treatises on image processing often emphasize applications and classical signal processing. The fast evolution of technology causes such material to lose its relevance. For example, the development of optical fibers has reduced the importance of bandwidth compression."