This book presents the use of efficient Evolutionary Computation (EC) algorithms for solving diverse real-world image processing and pattern recognition problems. It provides an overview of the different aspects of evolutionary methods in order to enable the reader in reaching a global understanding of the field and, in conducting studies on specific evolutionary techniques that are related to applications in image processing and pattern recognition. It explains the basic ideas of the proposed applications in a way that can also be understood by readers outside of the field. Image processing and pattern recognition practitioners who are not evolutionary computation researchers will appreciate the discussed techniques beyond simple theoretical tools since they have been adapted to solve significant problems that commonly arise on such areas. On the other hand, members of the evolutionary computation community can learn the way in which image processing and pattern recognition problems can be translated into an optimization task. The book has been structured so that each chapter can be read independently from the others. It can serve as reference book for students and researchers with basic knowledge in image processing and EC methods.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the International Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation, EvoApplications 2013, held in Vienna, Austria, in April 2013, colocated with the Evo* 2013 events EuroGP, EvoCOP, EvoBIO, and EvoMUSART. The 65 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 119 submissions. EvoApplications 2013 consisted of the following 12 tracks: EvoCOMNET (nature-inspired techniques for telecommunication networks and other parallel and distributed systems), EvoCOMPLEX (evolutionary algorithms and complex systems), EvoENERGY (evolutionary computation in energy applications), EvoFIN (evolutionary and natural computation in finance and economics), EvoGAMES (bio-inspired algorithms in games), EvoIASP (evolutionary computation in image analysis, signal processing, and pattern recognition), EvoINDUSTRY (nature-inspired techniques in industrial settings), EvoNUM (bio-inspired algorithms for continuous parameter optimization), EvoPAR (parallel implementation of evolutionary algorithms), EvoRISK (computational intelligence for risk management, security and defence applications), EvoROBOT (evolutionary computation in robotics), and EvoSTOC (evolutionary algorithms in stochastic and dynamic environments).

This book presents a study of the use of optimization algorithms in complex image processing problems. The problems selected explore areas ranging from the theory of image segmentation to the detection of complex objects in medical images. Furthermore, the concepts of machine learning and optimization are analyzed to provide an overview of the application of these tools in image processing. The material has been compiled from a teaching perspective. Accordingly, the book is primarily intended for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Science, Engineering, and Computational Mathematics, and can be used for courses on Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Image Processing, Computational Intelligence, etc. Likewise, the material can be useful for research from the evolutionary computation, artificial intelligence and image processing communities.

The two volumes LNCS 10199 and 10200 constitute the refereed conference proceedings of the 20th European Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation, EvoApplications 2017, held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in April 2017, collocated with the Evo* 2016 events EuroGP, EvoCOP, and EvoMUSART. The 46 revised full papers presented together with 26 poster papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 108 submissions. EvoApplications 2016 consisted of the following 13 tracks: EvoBAFIN (natural computing methods in business analytics and finance), EvoBIO (evolutionary computation, machine learning and data mining in computational biology), EvoCOMNET (nature-inspired techniques for telecommunication networks and other parallel and distributed systems), EvoCOMPLEX (evolutionary algorithms and complex systems), EvoENERGY (evolutionary computation in energy applications), EvoGAMES (bio-inspired algorithms in games), EvoIASP (evolutionary computation in image analysis, signal processing, and pattern recognition), EvoINDUSTRY (nature-inspired techniques in industrial settings), EvoKNOW (knowledge incorporation in evolutionary computation), EvoNUM (bio-inspired algorithms for continuous parameter optimization), EvoPAR (parallel implementation of evolutionary algorithms), EvoROBOT (evolutionary robotics), EvoSET (nature-inspired algorithms in software engineering and testing), and EvoSTOC (evolutionary algorithms in stochastic and dynamic environments).

The publication of this book on evolutionaryImage Analysis and Signal P- cessing (IASP) has two main goals. The ?rst, occasional one is to celebrate the 10th edition of EvoIASP, the workshop which has been the only event speci?cally dedicated to this topic since 1999. The second, more important one is to give an overview of the opportunities o?ered by Evolutionary C- putation (EC) techniques to computer vision,pattern recognition,and image and signal processing. It is not possible to celebrate EvoIASP properly without ?rst ackno- edging EvoNET, the EU-funded network of excellence, which has made it possible for Europe to build a strong European research community on EC. Thanks to the success of the ?rst, pioneering event organized by EvoNET, held in 1998 in Paris, it was possible to realize that not only was EC a f- tile ground for basic research but also there were several application ?elds to which EC techniques could o?er a valuable contribution. That was how the ideaofcreatingasingleevent,EvoWorkshops,outofacollectionofworkshops dedicated to applications of EC, was born. Amongst the possible application ?elds for EC, IASP was selected almost accidentally, due to the occasional presence, within EvoNET, of less than a handful of researchers who were interested in it. I would lie if I stated that the event was a great success since its very start, but it was successful enough to survive healthily for a couple of years, before reaching its present size, relevance, and popularity.

This book constitutes the refereed conference proceedings of the 21st International Conference on the Applications of Evolutionary Computation, EvoApplications 2018, held in Parma, Italy, in April 2018, collocated with the Evo* 2018 events EuroGP, EvoCOP, and EvoMUSART. The 59 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 84 submissions. EvoApplications 2018 combined research from 14 different domains: business analytics and finance (EvoBAFIN); computational biology (EvoBIO); communication networks and other parallel and distributed systems (EvoCOMNET); complex systems (EvoCOMPLEX); energy-related optimization (EvoENERGY); games and multi-agent systems (EvoGAMES); image analysis, signal processing and pattern recognition (EvoIASP); realworld industrial and commercial environments (EvoINDUSTRY); knowledge incorporation in evolutionary computation (EvoKNOW); continuous parameter optimization (EvoNUM); parallel architectures and distributed infrastructures (EvoPAR); evolutionary robotics (EvoROBOT); nature-inspired algorithms in software engineering and testing (EvoSET); and stochastic and dynamic environments (EvoSTOC).