Cardiovascular Biomedical Image Analysis: Methods and Applications

My interest in seeing and thinking machines was ignited mainly during my high school years by novels such as those written by Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark, which however, found the ground already prepared by Jules Verne. My study at the “Electronica ” Faculty of the “Polithenica ” University of Bucharest was then the consequence. The passage from science-fiction to something more “earthly ” happened during the last years as a student, while I was specializing in “Imagini, Forme si Inteligenta Artificiala (IFIA)”1 under the guidance of my professor Vasile Buzuloiu and the group he lead at the “Laboratorul de Analiza si Prelucrarea Imaginilor (LAPI)”2. From this group – to whom my gratitude is directed as a whole – I would like to mention Dr. Mihai Ciuc and Dr. Constantin Vertan, which found the best way to make us students the acquaintance with Image Processing and other related fields in a clear and enjoyable way. During my activity at LAPI I met Dr. Erhardt Barth, who gave me the possibility to pre-pare my diploma thesis at the Institute for Signal Processing of the then Medical University of Lübeck, within a project related to vision-based quality control. He has my gratitude and full appreciation for being not only a teacher but also a very good friend