Humans perceive the three‎-dimensional structure of the world with apparent ease‎.‎ However‎,‎ despite all of the recent advances in computer vision research‎,‎ the dream of having a computer interpret an image at the same level as a two‎-year old remains elusive‎.‎ Why is computer vision such a challenging problem and what is the current state of the art‎?‎ Computer Vision‎:‎ Algorithms and Applications explores the variety of techniques commonly used to analyze and interpret images‎.‎ It also describes challenging real‎-world applications where vision is being successfully used‎,‎ both for specialized applications such as medical imaging‎,‎ and for fun‎,‎ consumer‎-level tasks such as image editing and stitching‎,‎ which students can apply to their own personal photos and videos‎.‎ More than just a source of “recipes‎,‎” this exceptionally authoritative and comprehensive textbook/reference also takes a scientific approach to basic vision problems‎,‎ formulating physical models of the imaging process before inverting them to produce descriptions of a scene‎.‎ These problems are also analyzed using statistical models and solved using rigorous engineering techniques Topics and features‎:‎ Structured to support active curricula and project‎-oriented courses‎,‎ with tips in the Introduction for using the book in a variety of customized courses Presents exercises at the end of each chapter with a heavy emphasis on testing algorithms and containing numerous suggestions for small mid‎-term projects Provides additional material and more detailed mathematical topics in the Appendices‎,‎ which cover linear algebra‎,‎ numerical techniques‎,‎ and Bayesian estimation theory Suggests additional reading at the end of each chapter‎,‎ including the latest research in each sub‎-field‎,‎ in addition to a full Bibliography at the end of the book Supplies supplementary course material for students at the associated website‎,‎ http‎:‎//szeliski‎.‎org/Book/ Suitable for an upper‎-level undergraduate or graduate‎-level course in computer science or engineering‎,‎ this textbook focuses on basic techniques that work under real‎-world conditions and encourages students to push their creative boundaries‎.‎ Its design and exposition also make it eminently suitable as a unique reference to the fundamental techniques and current research literature in computer vision‎.‎ Dr‎.‎ Richard Szeliski has more than 25 years’ experience in computer vision research‎,‎ most notably at Digital Equipment Corporation and Microsoft Research‎.‎ This text draws on that experience‎,‎ as well as on computer vision courses he has taught at the University of Washington and Stanford‎.‎