Pierre Kornprobst – författare

Partial differential equations (PDEs) and variational methods were introduced into image processing about fifteen years ago. Since then, intensive research has been carried out. The goals of this book are to present a variety of image analysis applications, the precise mathematics involved and how to discretize them.

Thus, this book is intended for two audiences. The first is the mathematical community by showing the contribution of mathematics to this domain. It is also the occasion to highlight some unsolved theoretical questions. The second is the computer vision community by presenting a clear, self-contained and global overview of the mathematics involved in image procesing problems. This work will serve as a useful source of reference and inspiration for fellow researchers in Applied Mathematics and Computer Vision, as well as being a basis for advanced courses within these fields.

During the four years since the publication of the first edition, there has been substantial progress in the range of image processing applications covered by the PDE framework. The main goals of the second edition are to update the first edition by giving a coherent account of some of the recent challenging applications, and to update the existing material. In addition, this book provides the reader with the opportunity to make his own simulations with a minimal effort. To this end, programming tools are made available, which will allow the reader to implement and test easily some classical approaches.

Computational biology, mathematical biology, biology and biomedicine are currently undergoing spectacular progresses due to a synergy between technological advances and inputs from physics, chemistry, mathematics, statistics and computer science. The goal of this book is to evidence this synergy by describing selected developments in the following fields: bioinformatics, biomedicine and neuroscience.

This work is unique in two respects - first, by the variety and scales of systems studied and second, by its presentation: Each chapter provides the biological or medical context, follows up with mathematical or algorithmic developments triggered by a specific problem and concludes with one or two success stories, namely new insights gained thanks to these methodological developments. It also highlights some unsolved and outstanding theoretical questions, with a potentially high impact on these disciplines.  

Two communities will be particularly interested in this book. The first one is the vast community of applied mathematicians and computer scientists, whose interests should be captured by the added value generated by the application of advanced concepts and algorithms to challenging biological or medical problems. The second is the equally vast community of biologists. Whether scientists or engineers, they will find in this book a clear and self-contained account of concepts and techniques from mathematics and computer science, together with success stories on their favorite systems. The variety of systems described represents a panoply of complementary conceptual tools. On a practical level, the resources listed at the end of each chapter (databases, software) offer invaluable support for getting started on a specific topic in the fields of biomedicine, bioinformatics and neuroscience.