This book provides a fundamentally new approach to pattern recognition in which objects are characterized by relations to other objects instead of by using features or models. This 'dissimilarity representation' bridges the gap between the traditionally opposing approaches of statistical and structural pattern recognition.Physical phenomena, objects and events in the world are related in various and often complex ways. Such relations are usually modeled in the form of graphs or diagrams. While this is useful for communication between experts, such representation is difficult to combine and integrate by machine learning procedures. However, if the relations are captured by sets of dissimilarities, general data analysis procedures may be applied for analysis.With their detailed description of an unprecedented approach absent from traditional textbooks, the authors have crafted an essential book for every researcher and systems designer studying or developing pattern recognition systems.

This accessible text/reference presents a coherent overview of the emerging field of non-Euclidean similarity learning. The book presents a broad range of perspectives on similarity-based pattern analysis and recognition methods, from purely theoretical challenges to practical, real-world applications. The coverage includes both supervised and unsupervised learning paradigms, as well as generative and discriminative models. Topics and features: explores the origination and causes of non-Euclidean (dis)similarity measures, and how they influence the performance of traditional classification algorithms; reviews similarity measures for non-vectorial data, considering both a “kernel tailoring” approach and a strategy for learning similarities directly from training data; describes various methods for “structure-preserving” embeddings of structured data; formulates classical pattern recognition problems from a purely game-theoretic perspective; examines two large-scale biomedical imaging applications.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Similarity Based Pattern Analysis and Recognition, SIMBAD 2013, which was held in York, UK, in July 2013. The 18 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 33 submissions. They cover a wide range of problems and perspectives, from supervised to unsupervised learning, from generative to discriminative models, from theoretical issues to real-world practical applications, and offer a timely picture of the state of the art in the field.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the First International Workshop on Similarity Based Pattern Recognition, SIMBAD 2011, held in Venice, Italy, in September 2011. The 16 full papers and 7 poster papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 35 submissions. The contributions are organized in topical sections on dissimilarity characterization and analysis; generative models of similarity data; graph-based and relational models; clustering and dissimilarity data; applications; spectral methods and embedding.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 17th Iberoamerican Congress on Pattern Recognition, CIARP 2012, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September 2012. The 109 papers presented, among them two tutorials and four keynotes, were carefully reviewed and selected from various submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on face and iris: detection and recognition; clustering; fuzzy methods; human actions and gestures; graphs; image processing and analysis; shape and texture; learning, mining and neural networks; medical images; robotics, stereo vision and real time; remote sensing; signal processing; speech and handwriting analysis; statistical pattern recognition; theoretical pattern recognition; and video analysis.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Similarity Based Pattern Analysis and Recognition, SIMBAD 2015, which was held in Copenahgen, Denmark, in October 2015. The 15 full and 8 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 30 submissions.The workshop focus on problems, techniques, applications, and perspectives: from supervisedto unsupervised learning, from generative to discriminative models, and fromtheoretical issues to empirical validations.