ABSTRACT
1.1 Introduction
Pattern recognition (PR) is an activity that we humans normally excel in. We do it almost all the time, and without conscious effort. We receive information via our various sensory organs, which is processed instantaneously by our brain so that, almost immediately, we are able to identify the source of the information, without having made any perceptible effort. What is even more impressive is the accuracy with which we can perform recognition tasks even under non-ideal conditions, for instance, when the information that needs to be processed is vague, imprecise or even incomplete. In fact, most of our day-to-day activities are based on our success in performing various pattern recognition tasks. For example, when we read a book, we recognize the letters, words and, ultimately, concepts and notions, from the visual signals received by our brain, which processes them speedily and probably does a neurobiological implementation of template-matching! [189]
