Preface

DICTA has played a pivotal role in supporting, nurturing research and applications of Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition technologies in Australian universities, research institutes and industry. One important characteristic of the conference is that it is truly a "conference for the community:" a venue for discussion, conveying findings and mutual support. Such conferences are far too few in the ICT community and I strongly encourage attendees to keep this tradition alive and well. This is not to say there is not quality and relevance in the papers presented at DICTA 2008. Indeed, we have a strong collection of oral presentations varying from classical problems in image processing, computer vision to such problem-driven areas as medical image processing, environment. Equally the posters cover such basic and problem-driven topics that are concurrent with international trends.