This book contains the manuscripts of the papers delivered at the International Sym posium on Synergetics held at SchloB Elmau, Bavaria, Germany, from April 30 until May 5, 1979. This conference followed several previous ones (Elmau 1972, Sicily 1974, Elmau 1977). This time the subject of the symposium was "pattern formation by dynam ic systems and pattern recognition". The meeting brought together scientists from such diverse fields as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, history as well as experts in the fields of pattern recognition and associative memory. When I started this type of conference in 1972 it appeared to be a daring enter prise. Indeed, we began to explore virgin land of science: the systematic study of cooperative effects in physical systems far from equi~ibrium and in other disciplines. Though these meetings were attended by scientists from quite different disciplines, a basic concept and even a common language were found from the very beginning. The idea that there exist profound analogies in the behaviour of large classes of complex systems, though the systems themselves may be quite different, proved to be most fruitful. I was delighted to see that over the past one or two years quite similar conferences were now held in various places allover the world. The inclusion of prob lems of pattern recognition at the present meeting is a novel feature, however.

Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society is a comprehensive and accessible source of state-of-the-art information on all existing and emerging biometrics: the science of automatically identifying individuals based on their physiological or behavior characteristics. In particular, the book covers: *General principles and ideas of designing biometric-based systems and their underlying tradeoffs *Identification of important issues in the evaluation of biometrics-based systems *Integration of biometric cues, and the integration of biometrics with other existing technologies *Assessment of the capabilities and limitations of different biometrics *The comprehensive examination of biometric methods in commercial use and in research development *Exploration of some of the numerous privacy and security implications of biometrics. Also included are chapters on face and eye identification, speaker recognition, networking, and other timely technology-related issues. All chapters are written by leading internationally recognized experts from academia and industry. Biometrics: Personal Identification in Networked Society is an invaluable work for scientists, engineers, application developers, systems integrators, and others working in biometrics.