The International Association for Pattern Recognition or IAPR is an international non-profit, professional organization concerned with pattern recognition

Pattern recognition

In machine learning, pattern recognition is the assignment of some sort of output value to a given input value , according to some specific algorithm. An example of pattern recognition is classification, which attempts to assign each input value to one of a given set of classes...

, computer vision

Computer vision

Computer vision is a field that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analysing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the forms of decisions...

, and image processing

Image processing

In electrical engineering and computer science, image processing is any form of signal processing for which the input is an image, such as a photograph or video frame; the output of image processing may be either an image or, a set of characteristics or parameters related to the image...

 in a broad sense.

History

IAPR came into official existence in January 1978. Following the Second International Conference on Pattern Recognition in 1974 in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

, the Standing Committee approved the proposal to establish a permanent international professional organization; two years later, the Constitution was approved in Coronado and Executive Officers were elected. Today, the responsibility for the day-to-day running of IAPR is delegated to an Executive Committee, assisted by Standing and ad hoc committees. The authority of the Association is vested in the Governing Board, composed of representatives of the member organizations, who decide all important matters such as general policy, the programme of activities, admissions, elections, and budget.

Purpose

The aims of IAPR are to promote pattern recognition and the allied branches of engineering together with the related arts and sciences, to advance international co-operation in the field of interest to stimulate research, development, and the application of pattern recognition in science and human activity, to further the dissemination and exchange of information on pattern recognition in the broad sense, and to encourage education in all aspects of the field of interest. In achieving these aims, IAPR fulfills the need for better worldwide communication and increases understanding among practitioners of all nations in the role that machine intelligence can play in accelerating technical and scientific progress.

Technical committees

Areas of pattern recognition currently represented by technical committees are: Statistical Pattern Recognition, Structural and Syntactical Pattern Recognition, Neural Networks and Computational Intelligence, Benchmarking and Software, Special Hardware and Software Environments, Remote Sensing and Mapping, Machine Vision Applications, Biomedical Applications, Graphics Recognition, Reading Systems, Multimedia and Visual Information Systems, Pattern Recognition in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Signal Analysis for Machine Intelligence, Graph Based Representations, Algebraic and Discrete Mathematical Techniques, Machine Learning and Data Mining, Discrete Geometry, Cultural Heritage Applications, and Bioinformatics, e.g.International Conference on Pattern Recognition in Bioinformatics(PRIB).

Biennial Awards of the IAPR

King Sun Fu Prize, P. Zamperoni Award, and J. K. Aggarwal Prize