This book is about the computer image, emphasising the `how', but also addressing the `whys' and `wherefores' of this creation of the 20th century. Where did it come from? Where is it going? What is its importance? These questions cannot be answered without a knowledge of the technology itself, its past and its evolutionary forces.

The three main fields of computer imagery; computer graphics, image processing and computer vision, are merging in many applications. Computer vision techniques are used in computer graphics to collect and model complex scenes; computer graphics techniques are used to constrain the recognition of 3D objects by computers; image processing techniques are routinely used by graphic designers to manipulate photographs. For the first time this textbook brings all three areas together in a coherent overview.