Message from the General Chairs

On behalf of the ICIP 2011 Organizing Committee, we are warmly welcoming you to Brussels, the capital of the Kingdom of Belgium and the home to the European headquarters, a buzzing, influential city where history is made. The city is a key European commercial hub, a base for many major international companies. This cosmopolitan city that loves good food lives life its way and expresses itself in a style very much its own: sometimes rebellious and mischievous, sometimes thoughtful and composed, but always very likeable. Despite its European dimension and despite all the different languages spoken on the corner of every street, Brussels is still inspired by a very "village-like" spirit. Of course, it’s well known for its Grand-Place, its Atomium, its Manneken-Pis, its Gueuze and its Kriek, its waffles and its chocolates... (don’t miss them!). The Brussels-Capital region consists of 19 communes and covers a total surface area of 16,179 ha. The population has around 990,000 inhabitants. Roughly a quarter of the city’s total population is foreign. Brussels has a temperate, maritime climate. The average temperature in September is around 16°Celsius (± 60° Fahrenheit).

Brussels and Belgium, being at the crossroad of France, Germany and United Kingdom has been the place where Europe has been shaped. It is crossed by the border which separates Latin Europe from German Europe, which is the place where in 57 BC Julius Caesar stopped its first conquest of the Gaul. This line still separates today the two main communities of Belgium, the Flemish and the Walloon. Belgium nourishes diversity, creativity, art and technology. The Flemish textile industry came from the middle age, while the steel and glass industry made Belgium one of the main industrial countries at the beginning of the 20th century. These industrial golden ages of Belgium gave rise to art and science creativity, among which one can cite the Flemish school of Painting in the 15th century or the Solvay congresses in the beginning of the 20th century where all the key Physicists of the World, including Albert Einstein and Marie Curie, were shaping the modern Physics in Brussels under the sponsorship of Ernest Solvay. We are very proud to welcome ICIP in the continuity of this long tradition and spirit of modernity.

ICIP is the premier forum for the presentation of technological advances and research results in the fields of theoretical, experimental, and applied image and video processing. ICIP 2011, the 18th in the series that has been held annually since 1994, brings together leading engineers and scientists in image processing from around the world. As its previous editions ICIP 2011 targets an excellence level by selecting outstanding papers with the aid of an elaborate panel of experts that evaluated the papers. The Technical Program Chairs, Special Session Chairs and Tutorial Chairs supported by many collaborators managed this process while aiming at an acceptance rate of 40%. The three main 2011 themes, human computer interfacing, astronomy and cultural heritage, are reflected in the plenary talks and multiple lecture and poster sessions. This conference also awards best student papers and best papers via a meticulous process involving expert reviewers.

The conference center, the Square, is housed in the centre of Brussels in the extensive former Palais des Congrés, an elegant, architecturally significant building originally constructed for the 1958 World Expo. Many of the original features, including expansive murals by Paul Delvaux, René Magritte and Louis van Lint, have been carefully restored and are now juxtaposed with contemporary design conceived by a team of leading European designers. With its spectacular views over the Brussels skyline, Square is somewhere to inspire the mind to greater heights and ambition. Brussels is the thriving centre of Europe, and Square is right in the heart of it, just a short stroll from all of the historic city’s major attractions.

The welcome reception takes place in the proximity of the square in the King's Gallery (Galerie du Roi), which is one of three galleries that are better known as the Saint-Hubertus Royal Gallery. The galleries housed some 70 luxury boutiques (54 today) and about 100 private flats, all of which have been rented out since 1850. The banquet is hosted by AutoWorld, one of the most important and complete exhibitions of automobiles in Europe with more than 350 vehicles offering an overview of the general history of the car industry since its very begins.

Organizing a conference like ICIP always involves many persons and addressing them individually in this word of thank would not be feasible, but we do want to mention a few people that played a key role in organizing this event. We would like to thank especially the Technical Program Chairs, Prof. Inald Lagendijk and Prof. Pierre Moulin for their guidance and hard work putting together this year’s technical program, and the Local Arrangement Chairs, Alasdair Grant and Dr. Véronique Delouille, for managing the event’s overall complexity and its smooth organization. They were assisted by Destrée Organisation as the Professional Congress Organizer (PCO) and by Carlson Wagonlit Travel to accommodate the social events and hotel reservations. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the IEEE staff and in particular to Lisa Schwarzbek for guiding us through this adventurous experience.

Evidently, we need also to thank our sponsors: IEEE and the IEEE Signal Processing Society, and our supporters: the Funds for Scientific Research in Flanders and Wallonie (FWO and FNRS), the Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO) project BCRYPT, INRIA, Hewlett-Packard, Huawei, Barco, Wiley-Blackwell, VisitBrussels and Duvel Moortgat.

It is an honor to host ICIP 2011 and we hope that attendees will have exciting and fruitful experience paving the way for future research and developments in the domain. We welcome you to Brussels and hope you will have a joyful stay!

Bienvenue à Bruxelles, Welkom in Brussel, Willkommen in Brüssel, Welcome to Brussels!